COURT OF ARBITRATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1398, 26 March 1912, Page 3

COURT OF ARBITRATION.

MERCHANTS' fiSSISTANTS , DISPUTE. COl'liT ADVISKS lIK.VHIXG IN SKCTWNS. T!i[i judgment of (ho Court of Aibitra--1 i"i> has been delivered by .Mr. Justice Slur ill tho case .-lated by a Cniincil nf C'yiiciliiitiDii for the opinion of the Court under Section:> or the 1 ndiistrinl Conciliation and Arbitration .Amendment Act, IIIOS. in the eourso of his judgment, hi; Honour said:— '"i'lio union includes within its ranks ;i number of persons employed in the warehouses of abnut 200 merchants in the oily of Wellington. It has originated a dispute with the.-o em plovers in connsetum with the hours (if wovk, and other conditions ;>f the workers employed by such employers. When llih dispute came before the Concilh'liou Cinim-il, the employers contended Hint, as different trades and industries wci-e affected bv the dispute, it was impossible to arrange one set of hours and scale of wages that could be made applicable to all of the variovs callings, and that, therefore, the disputeshould be. divided up into sec-lion*, and each section treated as a separate dispute. The question submitted bv the Conciliation Council for tho opinion of this Court was tins: Should the dispute bo heard and 'considered by a Council of Conciliation as ono dispute or otherwise? "It was contended by Mr. Weston that the union was not justified in joining different classes of employers as parties to ono dispute, and that the rule laid down by the Court in connection with the general labourers' dispute in Chrislchurch should bo applied in tho present case. A. difficulty, however, in applying that rule in the present case arises from -the fact that the employers cannot bo separated into clearly defined classes, and that under any attempted classification a number of employers must be included in several Tho union certainly would have been wiser if it had commenced its operations in a more modest way, and had endeavoured to obtain an award in connection with tho workers employed by one or inoro classes rf employers whose operations were similar in character. The union, however, did not do that, and the question now is how tho dispute which tho union originated should be dealt with. Jii the circumstances -there- is nothing to be gained by holding that tho union must originate separate disputes, and the only alternative is for tli3 present council to deal with tho dispute in sections. That is what wo advise tho council to do. The council has made a provisional classification of the employers concerned into sixteen groups. We. do not express any opinion as to the propriety or otherwise ot' this classification, but wo recommend tho council to make the groups as few as it reasonably can."

Mr, -T. S. Weston appeared for the employers, and Sir. Conner, secretary of the union, for tlio t-mploycos.