H—ll

(4) The following table shows the number of holiday cards surrendered and the amount paid out bv the Post and Telegraph Department for the year ended 31st March, 1948 :

(5) Reference was made in the annual report of the Department of Labour for 1947 to the difficulty of defining " ordinary pay " and to the fact that guidance might have to come from the Courts. (6) During the year under review an important decision applying the decision in Moon v. Kent Bakeries, Ltd. (46 Awards 770) was recorded. This was N.Z. Refrigerating Co., Ltd. v. BlancJiard (1947 Awards 2817), in which the Supreme Court had before it a case in which work had to be continuous for twenty-four hours a day over seven days a week. The individual worker's hours and times of working varied according to a roster covering a four-weekly period, and the award provided for penalty payments for work performed on Saturdays and Sundays and an additional payment for work performed on " night shifts." The Court held that the shift allowances and the penalty payments were not " overtime," but formed part of the worker's ordinary pay for the particular weeks in which they were payable, and that " ordinary pay " for the holiday period under the Annual Holidays Act was the average of the ordinary pay over the four-weekly period. (7) Section 4 of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1947, amended the principal Act so that where any worker is dismissed and re-employed within one month his employment is deemed to be continuous for the purposes of the Annual Holidays Act unless an Inspector of Factories certifies in writing that the employer had acted in good faith and not for the purpose of evading any obligation imposed by the Act. There is a right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration against any such determination of an Inspector. (8) Section 5 of the Statutes Amendment Act, 1947, makes it an offence under section 13 of the principal Act to buy at a discount any holiday card to which an uncancelled stamp is affixed. (h) Minimum Wage Act, 1945 (1) This Act, providing for minimum rates of wages for all persons of twenty-one years and upwards (with certain limited exceptions), has, at the end of the year under review, been in operation for two years. It was intended to provide a universal

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Period. Number of Transactions during Period. Amount paid out during Period. 1947 £ s. d. April .. 2,824 4,358 10 6 May .. 3,011 4,480 2 0 June .. 2,848 4,373 9 1 July .. 2,772 4,342 13 9 August 3,349 5,872 7 6 September 3,569 5,544 17 7 October 3,380 5,283 11 7 November 2,802 4,479 14 0 December 4,530 6,640 4 9 1948 January 4,353 6,213 4 2 February 3,762 5,414 0 10 March Totals for year ending 31 3,612 5,425 13 10 it 40,812 62,428 10 1 March, 1948 atals for year ending 31 T 3t 33,977 53,533 17 11 March, 1947