Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-05-07
TOMORROW We DAY. BRITISH ANNOUNCE
High Court 0K's
Portal Pay for
Soft Coal Miners
5-4 Ruling Follows
Precedent Set Up
In Iron Ore Case
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
The Supreme Court ruled. 5-4,
today that bituminous coal
miners are entitled to portal-to-
portal pay.
Justice Murphy delivered the
courts decision. Justice Jackson
wrote a dissent in which Chief
Justice Stone and Justices Roberts
and Frankfurter concurred.
The court on March 27, 1914, ruled
that iron ore miners must be paid
portal-to-portal wages-that is pay
for the time spent travelling from
the mine opening to the actual
working place and back again.
In the iron ore case, the courts
decision was To, with Chief Justice
Stone and Justice Roberts dissent
ing. Today they were joined by
Justices Jackson and Frankfurter.
In that case, too, Justice Murphy
delivered the majority opinion.
Circuit Court Upheld.
Today's decision was given on an
appeal by the Jewell Ridge Coal
Corp, employer of 900 men in two
mines in Southwest Virginia. The
concern protested decision by the
Fourth Federal Circuit Court that
such travel time is time worked for
which pay is required under the
Federal wage-hour law.
The bituminous industry has been
operating on a partial portal-to-
portal pay basis under q 1943 war
time agreement.
Justice Murphy said the majority
agreed with the Circuit Court that
there was no substantial factual or
legal difference between the case In
volving the biturninous coal miners
and that involving the iron ore
miners.
"FactuaIly," Justice Murphy said,
underground travel between the
portals and working faces Of Jew
ellis two mines bears all the indicia
of work"
| Cites Reality"
ct is obvious" he stated, that
the underground travel is both con-
trolled and required by petitioner
(JewelD."
Both the man-trip transporta-
ton and travel by foot occur solely
on petitioners property and occur
only as and when required by pc
titioner. To conclude that such
subteranneous travel is MT work Is
to ignore reality completely"
Justice Jackson's dissent said the
decision either invalidates or ignores
terms of agreements bargained col
lectively between the parties based
on half century of custom in the
industry"
Fears Consequence.
I'VE cannot shut our eyes to the
consequence of this decision, which
is to impair for all organized labor
the credit of collective bargaining,
the only means left by which there
could be a reliable settlement of
marginal questions concerning hours
of work or compensation" Justice
Jackson asserted.
I'VE have just held Tin a recently
decided case) that the individual
workman is deprived of power to
settle such questions. Now we hold
collective bargaining incompetent to
do SO.
ut is hard to see how the long
range interests of labor itself are
advanced by a holding that there is
no mode by which it may bind itself
To any specified future conduct, how
lever fairly bargained. A genuinely
collectively bargained agreement as
to wages, hours and working condi-
Itions is not invalidated by this
(wage-hour) act and both employer
and employee should be able to rely
on them, and the courts in deciding
such cases should honor them"