PRIVATE HOTELS DISPUTE

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 573, 30 July 1909, Page 4

PRIVATE HOTELS DISPUTE

. APPLICATION FOR AN AWARD DIS^ ■.■/./-■•:.■ , ;■";^missed."; i ': i ■'•/.'.' v ■ : _ '■''' Christohuroh, July 28. :-. :The judgment of the Arbitration Court in the private Hotels dispute ; was received today.;' , The judgment states that: the-. employers before the Court did not form a clearly-defined class of boardinghotise-keeper. The .union suggested that'the Court'should make' an award on the lines of the Dunedin award,- but that award was based on an Agreement; of' the parties. The '■' application :for renewal,;'however, was refused,/for. tho reason that tho proprietors could not afford to pay the wages! asked, and the position was.the .same in the present caEe. 'Even if they could afford to do so, there was no reason why they should be compelled. No question of living wage was involved, and, except in special oircumstanccs, -the Court should not attempt to regulate tho wages of such workers. ,By Section 71 of tho Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1908, the Legislature'had'made it', clear, .'that the hulk of ■ domestic: workers were outside the scope of the arbitration'system, and in'the case! of. .those who dome within it the Court should only. exercise its powers of regulation in special'circumstances. The ■ application for an award would be dismissed. Mr. M'Cullough, ■ the workers' representative on tho Court, dissented , from tho judgment,! stating that tho decision mado it possible for employors to sweat and underpay a' largo number of deserving man and women..