MUCH TIME LOST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 144, 20 August 1941, Page 5

MUCH TIME LOST

INDUSTRIAL UPSETS

RECORD NUMBER OF MEN * INVOLVED

Industrial disputes during the year (939, the latest for which complete figures are available, affected a record number of workers, according to the latest Official Year Book. In. that year there were 66 disputes* and they involved 15,682 workers who*suffered an estimated loss in wages of £60,394. There were 636 firms.affected. This' vas more than six times as many as in the previous year, when 11,388 workers were concerned in 72 strikes, involving a losv in wages of £42,104. In a brief review, of the history of industrial disputes, the Year Book states that the greatest number of disputes) in anj r one year sin'ce 1894, when the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act was passed, was. re-' corded in 1925, when there were 83 —mostly of trivial importance. Although the year 1939 saw the greatest number of workers involved, it ivas only slightly in advance of 1920, the next highest year, with 15,1.38 workers. In both years the industries most affected were mining and shipping . From the point of view of lost time, the maximum was reached in 1923, when the lost time represented more than 200,000 working days. This year was marked byi serious disputes in the coal-mining and shipping industries. Of the 66 disputes in 1939, 50 1 were of less than two ctays' duration. Twenty of the disputes' Avere settled tn favour of the workers and 22 ii* favour of the employers, while 15 were indeterminate and eight represented a compromise. It is interesting to note that of the disputes ending definitely in favour of one party or the other during, the five years 1935-39, workers succeeded in 79 instances and employers in 68. In the previous five years, 1930-'34, workers were successful in--25 instances and employers in 41. The score over the 10-yiear period, therefore, was fairly even, with the employers leading by 109 to 105.