SHIPPING TROUBLE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1641, 7 January 1913, Page 6

SHIPPING TROUBLE.

AUSTRALIAN TRADE. CAPTAINS AND OFFICERS. Maritime tension is Rotting a bit overstrung, remarks tho "Sydney Morning Herald" of December 31. Since tho president of the Commonwealth ' Conciliation and Arbitration Court (Air. Justico iliggins) found that,-in tho face-of the High Court's decision in tho case of tho award granted to the Merchant Service Guild of Australasia, ho was powerless to intervene to prevent sectional (or any other) trouble, the guild is taking up a v>ry decided attitude,' It has no intention, tho secretary (Captain Lawrence), says . of making a partial settlement. Any dispute that .may arise must, he says, bo Australian in character, and not coastal. There is a State wages board, but tho industry is oue which, he maintains, extends beyond the boundaries of any one State. , "There is no dispute,'.' said the: secretary, "while the employers conform to the conditions that have prevailed in tho industry. I am now advised, howover, that the employers intend to. depart from these conditions, in which oaso the members of the guild will havo no al- . tentative but to' take immediate action to preservo their interests. Prior'to the introduction of. tho. present conditions at the hands of the president of the Federal Arbitration Court- tho industry was probably tho most sweated in tho Commonwealth. Tho evidence at/ the hearing of the claims went to show that tho hours worked by the officers averaged .something like 100 per week, and the pay was something like 4jd. per hour. Mr; Justico Higgins, in his award, laid down rates which, when reduced to hourly payments, made- tho money for a chief mate Is. 3d. per hour for an eight-hour, day, with overtime at 2s. Gd. per hour. £18 a Month Overtime, "Therefore," he . went on, .."when Sir Allen Taylor complains of having paid, a mate ior a month's pay, including it means that in addition to absorbing the whole of tho 48 hours' per week at Is. officer has worked ,£lB worth of overtime—an average of 30 hours' overtime per week, so that under the new conditions (Sir Allen Taylor naturally cutting.down tho hours as much as possible in order to avoid overtime) the industry requires an officer to work 84 hours per week. "I say definitely:- that if Sir Allen Taylor is anxious to get rich, quick he will have to look to'some other method than by sweating it out of the mates., I regret vory. much that in commenting on the conditions,,he merely referred, to tho earning power, and failed to place, before the public how this, earning power arises. I feci confident that no member of the community will hesitate to say that Is. 3d. per hour (and 25., 6d. per hour for ov6rtirae) is an excessive rate for a chief officer, of. a steamer when the responsibilities, the risks, and-the services rendered are taken! into consideration. The sole trouble appears.to. mo to-arise from the fact that, in years gone by, it was possible for • these shipowners to work tho 6eamen extraordinary hours without any consideration whatever of the value of such services. If the community requires a,'shipping'industry there should be no hesitation in saying that the wages to bo paid to the workmen should be in accord with the living, conditions in Australia." Not a State Dispute. Dealing with the power of the State as an industrial authority to refer disputes to the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Court, the. Act.says,.in effect (Section 19): "The Ccmihonwealth, Court has cognisance of industrial disputes with which any such industrial authority requests the Court to deal." ~','■■' "This,", said Captain Lawrence, "appears to be wider than the.powers in cue Constitution to : make laws for the pre-, vention, and settlement of industrial'dis-putes-extending beyond the limits of any' one State. ' But it is not" wider than the Constitutional poiter giving any State the right to assign its power to the Federal Parliament. Tho'question is whether.-the industrial authority of the State is clothed .with power-to hand over the said right ih: this, matter. However, this is ' really immaterial,' as -ours ( 'is a- disputo which clearly extends beyond the boundaries of any one State. As a 1 matter- of fact, the guild and its members'are at the present moment in precisely-the same position:in South Australia and Tasmania' as they are here. The' prohibition applies to the three States. . •'■•'■•." •'.- '',:-.'■ - * "So far ao'l am aware, at the present time./iny guild has no intention whatever of making a partial-settlement of this dispute, and the shipowners may take it . ior granted that there is no likelihood of .the conditions of employment being imme : [ 'diatcly altered for the, worse, so farasmy ■members are concerned." v ~ Probable Trouble,on January 21. '■■ The firm of Allen Taylor and Co.; Ltd., . has served upon, one of- its marine captains a letter, in the following terms:— :■ , . "The High Court having quashed the , award made by Mr/Justice Higgins in the . Federal Arbitration Court as to.wages to . be earned and hours to-be worked by you , and'your brother officers for some years to t 'come, it.now. devolves' upon us to arrive l ct a.neiw, working .agreement. As '-this j company resigned some months ago from , membership of the Coastal Steamship Owners' Association, we havo to give you [ the. necessary notice that, on and filter r Tuesday, January 21, 1913, the conditions .' of Mr. Justicel Higgins's award, as describL ed by the Federal High Court, mil cease, . and a hew schedule will come into force 5 from that date. We are working '.this . schedule out "now with duo regard to your t conditions and 1 privileges; and full, pav--3 ticulars will be placed before you before . the day we have mentioned as that on r which the present rates and conditions 3 will cease (21/1/13).". . ...'.•' ' Commenting on this circular, Captain t Lawrence said: "It seems that the.posi- . tionwill become acute, so far as the firm of Allen Taylor and Co., Ltd;; is concernI ed, on January 21—that is, of course, un--3 less the firm brings forward some schedule t which may be acceptable to my members —which does not appear likely, judging by ' Sir Allen Taylor's comments to the inx dustrial inspector.. B "Tho coastal steamship owners would a appear to have something similar in view, i The move appears to bo to havo an. agree--8 ment made by a State wages board. As 1 1 have already said, the proposal to refer i tho matter tea State wages board would e fail to meet the-requirements ' of the v guild, which desires a.settlement over the :- whole area. The High Court, decision in r !the prohibition application goes only so ~ far as ,10 say that the guild, in demandi ing conditions, and the employers in refusing them, created no dispute within tin meaning of the constitutional powers. But the constitutional power of tho Commonwealth .to deal with disputes extending beyond tho limits of any one State has not been attacked.. Ours, is so clearly ■ a dispute extending beyond tho boundaries oi any ona State that thero is no.furthei need of explaining what we Tegard as the j proper method of its settlement." x * Claim of Preference. . 3 In the event of the conditions of ema ploymentof members of tho guild being, s so to speck, thrown into the iuoltiiig-poi r by Jthe terms of Mr. Justico Higgins'; award being ignored on the part of the ' steamship owners,, it,is .authoritatively i stated that the question of preference tc a unionists will be prominently raised, t Tho secretary of tho.guild, Captain Law--7 rence, state that notice had been served o on the owners that after a certain date tho members would decline to sail in any V ship employing .nonAinion officers, but, in e view of subsequent developments, it had s been decided not to act upon the notice, S and to allow the question of not working o with non-union officers to remain in abeyt once. y i In tho event of a conference being agreed t, to, said Captain Lawrence, the clnim foi r preference .'would bo urged by the guild.