HALF=HOLIDAY

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20785, 21 April 1939, Page 6

HALF=HOLIDAY

HAIRDRESSING SALOON CABE NO BREACH DISCLOSED Reserved judgment was given by Mr S. L. Paterson, S.M., in the Magistrate’s 'Court, Hamilton, to-day, in the case in which the Auckland Hairdressers Assistants’ Union sought to recover from George Cold-well, hairdresser, of Hamilton (Mr W. H. Adams), statutory penalties for alleged breaches of the Northern Jnduslti&j District Hairdressers' Award, involving the employment of an assistant after noon on a Saturday and the keeping of his saloon in Victoria Street open after 12 30 p.m. on a Saturday, the statutory weekly half-holiday. Defendant relied upon Section 21 (6) of the Shops and Offices Act. 1921-22. which provided that in the case of a shop in which was carried out inter alia the business of a hairdresser and tobacconist, the occupier might, in the event of Saturday being the half-holiday, close the shop for the half-day on such other workingday as he thought fit, provided that he lodged with the inspector of factories a notice stating on which day he intended to close. Defendant had given such notice. Occupier’s Right Preserved The plaintiff union, on the other hand, contended that Section G 9 of the Statute empowered the Arbitration Court in any award to fix the hours to be worked and the holidays to be observed, and this had been done in the award under consideration. “I cannot agree,” the judgment read, “with this interpretation. There is notiiing in Section G 9 which enables the Arbitration Court to override the Statute and so far as the right of the occupier of the shop to elect which day he will observe as the closing day is concerned, this right is expressly preserved in subcction (1) a. Section 24 of the Shops and Offices Amendment Act, 1936 .provides that all awards are to be read subject to the provisions of the Act. Defendant is entitled to keep the saloon and shop open on Saturday afternoons and to observe Wednesday as the closing day.”

Judgment was accordingly entered for defendant, with £2 2s costs.