Australian Timber Workers' Union v George Hudson Limited [1925] HCA 31

OF AUSTRALIA.

(HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.]

AUSTRALIAN TIMBER WORKERS' UNION. y a F ; eK APPELLANT ;

Inrormant,

AND

tEORGE HUDSON LIMITED. } i : RESPONDENT. Drrenpant,

ON APPEAL FROM A COURT OF PETTY SESSIONS OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

indium

Arbitration—Award—Breach—Payment of wages at less than rate—Demand in writing by employee—Prosecution for breach within nine 'months—Oommonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1921 (No. 13 of 1904—No. 29 of 1921), sec. 44.

'was provided that wages at cortain minimum rates should be paid to employees 'weekly, and that "' where an employer bound by this award has made a payment to an employee bound by this award which payment purports to be a payment 'of the wages payable to the employee for any period such employer shall not be liable to pay to the employee any further sums prescribed by this award in respect of any services rendered to such employer during such period unless within a period of nine calendar months after the last day of such period a "demand in writing of such further sum claimed has been given to the employer by the employee or some person on his behalf or by the local representative of the union."

An employer, who had in respect of one week paid an employee less wages 'than those to which he was entitled under the award was, within nine months after such underpayment, prosecuted under sec. 44 of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1921 for a breach of the award.

Held, by Knox C.5., Isaacs and Starke JJ. (Higgins J. dissenting), that in the absence of a demand in writing by the employee a breach of the award was

' not proved.

By an award of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitrationit

x CS, Isaacs, Higgins and Starke JJ.

432 HIGH COURT [1925.

H.C. or A. Per Higgins J.; The clause is merely a device to protect employers from 1925. stale demands—where the employee accepts the pay offered, says nothing, and =e long after worries the employer for further sums alleged to be due: it means