THE ARBITRATION LAW

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 41, 12 November 1920, Page 7

THE ARBITRATION LAW

■« EFFECT OF NEW AMENDMENT J ■ ■-■■■ ,; "WILL LEAD TO ENDLESS i- CONFUSION" t LABOUR'S ATTITUDE TO GUILDS e ■ > u , .; That endless- confusion will crise from the operation of clause 3 of tho Indus--1 trial Conciliation and Arbitration AmendJ- incut Bill, as passed by Parliament, was ■• the view expressed to a Dominion re-' n porter yesterday by Mr. E. Kennedy, president of the Wellington Trades and ; Labour Council. Tho clause gives- any organisation of employers and any orgamsation of workers of not less than 0 fifteen members the right to bo heard 5. !? Arbitration Court proceedings affecting the industry in which thoy are engaged. "Tho position taken up by Labour on -! |. tho matter of tho Industrial Conciliation ~ and Arbitration Act Amendment Bill has h been misconstrued by tho Press and the , politicians," said Mr. Kennedy. 'They n ' have tried to make it appear that La- ■: j. hour is against tho formation of guilds. That is- not so. Tho principle that tho Bill tends to break down is that laid i. down by- His Honour Mr. Justice Sim in o 1912, when ho was President of the Ary nitration. Court. His Honour then-said: 0 'Tho Court, can, of course, regulate its t own procedure in such matters, but it i« I, desirable not to depart from the prin- i )• ciplo embodied in the Arbitration Act that workers can bo represented before ' tho Court only by a union duly regist tercd under tho Act.' Tho amending Bill' I- now breaks down that principle and gives e representation to a number of workers or ■t employers who will not have obtained ren gistration under the Act. This will lead,. ■ if to endless confusion in proceedings before , s the Conciliation Council and tho : Arbitration Court in ' the near . future. While the new measure '• allows these unregistered workers tho J right to come in and interfere in a bona u fide, dispute before the Council or Court B it does not give us the right to interfere, 6 also, ta'any proceedings or. conferences '} they may have with their employers. Wo ~ know from past experience that workers ■■', and employers have come together out- 1 ' side the Concilia,tion Council, the Arb'itrn- • n tion Court, or the Act, and have fixed ■ i 8 up what I term false agreements, and, ; °- in later proceedings before the Court/wb ' j havo had to contend with those erratic ; „ agreements. ' "The decision of Mr.. Justice Sim in, 1912 was recently upheld by Mr. Justice , Stiicger in the Wellington timber .vor'f- ] j. ers'"case. By passing this legislation the. j politicians have stated in effect that tbe; . , decisions of these two learned Judges are ■ ; 8 wrong, both in principle and in law,, tut, : k I venture this opinion, that the politici-; . « ans will find out before vary long that, < ,r this legislation which they have forced,. I* upon us-will react as a boomerang. Should f any industrial trouble hcreaftor occur in. t any industry in thi6 country, and tho samo proccduro be adopted that was followed in 1913 (the registration of a bcc- . ond union in the industry which »«, ; represent onlv a small number ot.tho 3 workers engaged) tho great bulk of tho 3 workers will, under this amending Bill, - be allowed to enter into all the proceed- '. ings and negotiations that may be at-. ! tempted by the newly-formed union. It - - will bo seen, therefore, that, again, end- - less trouble will be caused. ■ _ s ' "In oonolusion, I want io emphasise the ; - fad that Labour's stand against tho passing of .this legislation was -tot myd* ' ; against the guilds or anybody else, out was an endeavour to maintain, the principle underlying the Act as enunciated b? the Judges from time to time. Wo , say that if those guilds think they are too respectable to form themselves into an ordinary trades'timon as otKer work- ' , ers have had to do, then a mistake has been made in giving them the', slightest ' donee oT legal recognition, because suck 1 recognition docs no!: carry with it the-. 1 pains anft penalties that the rest of the reglsTered unions unuer the Act have-to , submit to." ' -.-'- •