Prosecution Of Instigators A Possibility

Chronicle (Levin), 17 February 1948, Page 7

Prosecution Of Instigators A Possibility

Press AssociationJ

(Per

AVELLINGTON, 'Leb. 16. The Government proposes to tako actiou again st tliose persons who have been rosponsible for instigating the go-" slow in tlie building industry. The Minister of Labour, Mr. McLagan, said this af ternoon that . it appeared to be the wish of both the Carpenters' and Joiners' Union and eniployers, that serious and deliberate breaches of the awurd should be punished by prosecution and the Labour Department had aecordingly been directed "to take proceedings in the present case. By adopting conc.iliation and arbitraliou procedure and going to the Court, said Alr. McLagan, both the union and eniployers pledged themselves to accept the Court 's award when it was given. In spite of that the union was now boasting it was breaking the award in a wholesale manner. The Carpenters ' and Joiners' Union had repeatedly called on the Department of Labour to take aetion to prosecute eniployers for breaches of the award. In fact, on C'ebruary 2, when the go-slow poliey was- actually in operation, t he Auckland braneh of the union wrote to him caliing attention to alleged breaches of the award by eniployers and%protesting .igainst wliat it called the failure of the Departnfent of Labour to prosecute those eniployers for breaches of the i\\'-ard. The department had frequently prosecuted eniployers on complaints made by ihe union when those complaints were shown to be well-founded and the breaches were not merely trivial. On the other liand the eiriployers had now asked the Department u) take aetion in respect of what they lermed the union 's wholesale and tlagrant breach in instituting the go•Jow. Reviewing the dispute, the Alinister i.-iid the award all'ecting carpenters and joiners was issued bv tlie Court oi' Yrbitration as recentlv as July, 1947, uul expired in .1 uly, 1948. In August, 1947, the Court amended the .-ate of pay to bring it.into line witli the . 'ourt's standard wage pronounccment. The new rute of pay wliich operated i'rom October 1, .1947, was 8s 7d an lumr (exclusive of 2(1 an hour tool .uoney), Ihe 3s 7d an hour being thchandard rate prescribed for skilled workers under the court 's pronounce- . neill and also being the rate applicable lo skilled workers in industry generalIv. Hubsequently the Carpenters' and Joiners ' Union made application to the Court under the Econoinic Htabilisation Regulations, for further increases oi 1L1 an liour above the standard rate granted by Ihe Court to plumbers and iibrous plasterers, wliich had disturbed ihe previously existing relationship between those trades and the carpenters and .joiners. The application was eonsidered by the Court and on Deeember 1 7 last, was declined, the Court pointing out that the increase..to plumbers. of ,)4d an hour above the standard rate ha:l been granted in cousideration of the t'act that the period of apprenticeship t'or plumbers was six years as againsi a period of four to tive years- for. carpentry and joinery apprentices.- In Ve gard to jonrneymen Iibrous plasterers, the Court pointed out that the present relationship belween the rates .of wages or carpenters and joiners and journeyiueii plasterers, was no different , froin that wliich iiad pVevailed for soiue year.Init ia view of the convincing' subinis sions made to the Court, the rates foi journeymen tibrous- plasterers -were recentlv brought up to the rates prescribed for jourueynion plasterers. Thc Court. in its judguient, said it could UOi recogaise that the adjustment was :iu adequate reason for disturbing the relationship which had so Ipng pre vailed between the rates prescribed fo carpenters and joiners and tlie miniiiiuni hourly rat os t'ur skilled aduit mak workers wliich had, from time Lo timo, been iixed by the Court in various pro uouucements. Tlie Court apparently feii that i T auy increase above fhe standard rate were granted to carpenters and joiners, if would all'ect not only all other skilled tradesuxen but also th(; whole wage structure of the country.