LABOUR QUESTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 839, 10 June 1910, Page 6

LABOUR QUESTIONS.

EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION. ' ANNUAL EBPOET. The report to be presented to tie annual meeting of the Wellington Employers Association, which will be held next Monday at the office of the secretary (Mr. W. A. AV. Grenfell) in Woodward Street, deals with many matters of Siulustria] interest Tho references to the most important of these—the conciliation and arbitration system—are dealt with under another heading. ■ The committee expresses its belief that there is every prospect of a gradual return to the prosperity and advancement prevailing before the late sot-back, and is of opinion that the trying experiences of the past twelve months will have tlio salutary effect of making for the exercise of more careful business practices, and will retard' the undue speculation in land carried on in past years. The Apprentice Problem, Dealing with the Master and Apprentice Act, the committee states that the position of employers in relation to their ;*pprentices has for a long time been most unsatisfactory, and although the Arbitration Court has since 1906, whenever applied to, incorporated in awards clauses that save the necessity for indentures of apprenticeship being entered into, in a number of industries awards still provide for the indenturing of apprentices, and in some disputes, .chiefly in the country towns, employers, who arc apparently ignorant of the legal disabilities they are under, are still agreeing to olauses providing for indentures. The committee thinks that the present. state of the law is unsatisfactory, and unsuited to present conditions. A suggestion that the subject should be referred to a Koyal Commission receives endorsement. In any case, it is urged, a proper indenture form, safeguarding employees interested should bo framed. Proposed Legislation. Amendments to the Factories and Shops and Offices Acta were introduced into Parliament last session by the Minister for Labour, but were not passed into law. During the hearing, of evidence by the Labour Bills Committee a statement of gravo and far-reaching importance was made by the Minister to tho effect chat if tbo law did not at present give Parliament power to over-ride Arbitration Court decision's, he was determined (.0 make it do so. This, in tho opinion of the committee, is a threat on the part of the Minister to undermino tho chief basic principle upon which the Arbitration lairs have been built, that of finality. The Outlook. . After commenting upon the "pet eehemes" of some private members, the committee protests against tho forcing of legislation through Parliament without sufficient timo being given to consider it, expresses regret for. the Hon. J. A. Millar's hasty acquiescence in the objections of certain workers' unions to the proposed creation of a separate industrial district for Hawke's Bay and Poverty Bay, and concludes as follows:—"The formation of federations of unions in various sections of industries, the efforts being put forth to .secure a general federation of Labour for' the Dominion, the readiness with which Labour, unions ignore the Arbitration Court and its awards when it suits ; their purpose, the avowed intention of some unions to secure a five-days' <working week, and other indications of tho trend of ideas and ambitions in Labour circles point to the urgent need for the closer joining together of employers, and the recognition by them of their nndoubted obligation to combine with the other employers of the Dominion for the protection of their common interests.