INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19173, 2 December 1927, Page 9

INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION

* NEW ARRANGEMENT IN N.S.W. (BT CABLE—PBBSS ASSOCIATION—COPIBIOHT.) (AUSTBALIAN AND N.Z CABLE ASSOCIATION.) SYDNEY, December 1. In the Assembly, the Government introduced the Industrial Amendment Bill, which provides for the appointment of three Commissioners, instead cf only one, as at present, and questions at sittings are to be decided by a majority vote. Members of the Commission are to have the same status as Supreme Court Judges. The powers of the Commission in relation to the granting of preference are to be restricted. The Commission will not be allowed to go beyond the declaration that in giving employment preference shall be given to unionists, other things being equal. It will not be possible to direct an employee to join a Union in order to obtain employment, or to lay down that the engagement of labour shall only be made at a Union office. Provisions in current awards overriding these provisions are nullified. Speaking on the Industrial Arbitration Amendment BUI, Mr Bavin said that at the end of Mr A. B. Piddington's present contract he would be put on the same footing as the other members of the Commission. The Bill simply meant transferring from the shoulders of a single individual the power with which no single individual should be burdened.