Chief Inspector of Factories (Vic) v Watsford

The Chief Inspector of Factories appealed to the High Court of Australia from a decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria, which had quashed a determination made by the Gas Meter Board. The dispute concerned clause 3 of the Board's determination, which stipulated that the ordinary hours of work for employees in the gas meter industry were 44 hours per week, to be worked on five days between 7:30 a.m. and 5:15 p.m. from Monday to Friday inclusive. This effectively meant that any work performed on a Saturday would be subject to overtime rates, as provided by clause 4 of the determination.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether section 145 (1) (c) (ii) of the *Factories and Shops Act 1928* (Vic.) empowered a wages board to limit the ordinary hours of work to five days of the week, thereby mandating overtime rates for any work performed on the sixth day. The appellant argued that the Board had exercised its power to fix the hour of beginning and ending work on each day, and that the subsequent provisions for overtime applied to work done outside these fixed hours or in excess of the ordinary weekly hours. The respondent contended that the Act did not grant wages boards the power to prescribe specific working days or to effectively prohibit work on certain days by deeming it overtime, arguing that the power to fix hours did not extend to fixing days.

The High Court, by a majority, held that section 145 (1) (c) (ii) of the *Factories and Shops Act 1928* did not grant wages boards the power to limit ordinary working hours to a specific five-day week, thereby requiring overtime rates for work on Saturdays. The Court reasoned that the phrase "on each day" in the section referred to the daily hours of work within a day, not to the selection of specific days of the week for work. The majority interpreted the provision as empowering the board to fix the times of commencement and cessation of work on any given day, and to stipulate overtime rates for work performed outside those daily hours or in excess of the ordinary weekly hours. However, it did not permit the board to exclude an entire day of the week from ordinary working hours and relegate it to overtime.

The appeal was dismissed, affirming the decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria. The determination of the Gas Meter Board, insofar as it limited ordinary working hours to Monday to Friday and thus mandated overtime rates for Saturday work, was found to be beyond the powers conferred upon the Board by the Act.