CLERICAL WORK

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 138, 28 June 1937, Page 7

CLERICAL WORK

-Press A.ssociation. )

Validity of Awards in' Question IS IT AN INDUSTRY? C-

(By Telegraph—

WELLINGTON, This Day. A case raising the question of the validity of all clerical unions registered in New Zealand, the membership of which numbers about 20,000, is being considered to-day by the Appeal Court. The case is that of the Otago and Southland Stock and Station Agents Clerical Employees Trade Union and others (plaintiffs) v. Judge and members of the Arbitration Court, the Otago Clerical Workers Industrial Union -and the Registrar of Industrial Unions (defendants). It was remoyed from Dunedin by order of Justice^Ken-r nedy into the Court of Appeal. The plaintiff Union is a duly regis-. tered union under the Trades Union Act, 1908, its members comprising employees in various stook and station agent companies in Otago and Soutlir land, and in October, 1936, the union entered into an industrial agreement with the employers. Othef plaintiffs are the officers of the Otago Stock and Station Agents Employees Society formed for like purposes as the plaintiff union, but when the society applied for registration as an industrial union, the application was refused on the ground that the society could belong to Otago Clerical ' Workers' Union I'ilie deifendant unin), the registration ef which as an industrial union the plain* "tiffs allege was not lawful. Plaintiffs further contended that defendant union was granted an award by the Arhitvar tion Court which applied not to an iudustry but to all clerical workers in the Otago portion of the industrial district. They elaimed: (a) That clerical work is not an industry within the. meaning of the Industrial Concidiation and Arbitration Abt and that the defendant union is nafc a societyor union within the meaning of the Act. (b) That the union is not a union withan the meaning of the Act nor authorised to be registered, the above mentioned award* is nul and was made by the Arbitration Court without jurisdiction. (c) ; That the Registrar unlawfully refused to register the above society, such refusal likewise being without jurisdiction. Addressing the Court, Mr J. F. B. Stevenson, for the plaintiffs, stated that the whole question was whether clerical work is or is not an industry within the meaning of the Act. "Plaintiffs contend that clerical workers ara employed in practically every industry in New Zealand, but clerieal work if-> self is not an industry. Throughout New Zealand there have been regis--tered what are kuown as general clerical unions having as members clerks in every conceivable form of business and industry." The question for discussion was whether the awards made by the Court were valid awards. (Proceeding.)