CLERICAL WORKERS' UNIONS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 171, 6 August 1937, Page 4

CLERICAL WORKERS' UNIONS

'Ihe Itidgmeiit delivefed early m the week by our Cotirt oi Appeal with regard to the formation of unions of clerical workers under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act has excited very greiit interest in trade union circles. This is very natural, for in some important respects it runs counter to principles and practices that have hitherto been widely adopted not only in the con&titution of unions themselves but also in the Arbitration Court. The decision itself is a highly technical one, turning mainly upon the judicial interpretation of a rather vague and indetermiiiate statutory de&nition of the word "industry." It was arrived at only after the hearing of very lengthy and refined legal argument that need not be discussed here. The appeal arose out of circumstances that raay be thus briefly stated. Under the style of the Otago Clerical Workers' Union a union had been formed and registered which claimed to embrace all clerical workers within the Otago Industrial District, irrespective altogether of the trade business or calling in which their employers might be engaged. The clerical workers in the employment of stock and station agents took exception to this and organised a union of their own under the style of the Otago and Southland Stock and Station Agents' Clerical Employees' Union. Registration of this union was, however, refused mainly on the ground that there was already in existence a union to which its would-be members could adhere. Recourse was had to the Appeal Court not only to order registration of the smaller union but also to deelaw void the registration of the bigger one as not complying in its constitution with the requirements of the Act, inasmuch as it was not associated with an "industry" as defined by the Act. This appeal has been sustained in both respects, the registrar being directed to register the smaller union and the registration of the bigger one being quashed. What stirs concern among other trade unions is that the judgment thus given runs on an entirely new interpretation of the Act that may cut at the foundations of their constitution and of the awards under which their members work. It is quite possible that the alarm that has been thus aroused, while not altogether groundless, is unnecessarily exaggerated. In any event, with Parliament now announced as resuming tis sittings early next month, whatever dislocation may be apprehended can quite easily be averted before any harm is done, and the Prime Minister has already intimated that this course wili be adopted. At the same time, however, it is quite obvious that if justice is to be done some regard will have to be paid to the contentions advanced by the appellants in the case just decided. As a matter of fact the unionising of clerical workers has introduced a quite novel element into trade unionism as we have known it in the Dominion and the rights of this class of worker must in all. fairness call for special consideration. * Fairness will certainly not be served by grouping them all togethef in one comprehensive union without regard to the nature of the business, profession or calling in which their services are given, There has been a good deal of quite foolish talk about the effect of the judgment, sucli as the suggestion that before a carpenter can do a job for a confectioner he Would have to join a confectionery workers' union. There is no parallel in this, for the carpenter, like any other skilled artisan, requires just the same kind of qualifications to do a bit of work for a confectioner as to earn his wages from a building contractor. The clerks are, however, in quite a different category, for the qualifications they need are just as diverse as are the businesses ltl which they seek employment. There is, for instance, just as much difference between the work a stock agent's clerk may be called on to do and that of a lawyer's clerk as between the work of a carpenter and a cabinetmaker, each of whom has his own independent union. There is thus every good reason why clerical workers should be allowed to organise separately according to the charactei of the vocation . in which their employers are engaged. We shali see how , this distinction will be recognised by a Government bent on herding all wage and small-salary earners into big unions Under the ultimate control of the executive of a centralised Federation in which clerical workers will have but a very small say, %