MINISTER'S HANDLING OF STRIKE CRITICISED

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 42, 12 November 1937, Page 3

MINISTER'S HANDLING OF STRIKE CRITICISED

■Presa Aseoriatinn.i

EMPLOYERS' RIGHTS "Only One Side of It," Retorts Mr. Lyon ARBITRATI0N DEBATE

(By Telesrapb—

\ : WELLINGTON, Last Night. 1 Urgency was granted the passing of i the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitra- • tion Amendment Bill (No. 2). Mr Sexton said the legislation wouldi bring the dairy farmer with a small flock of sheep directly under the Arbitration Court. Modifying the procedure for the citation of eruployers would operate in a particularly objectionable manner so far as sruall rural industries were concerned. It would be interesting to hear from the Minister eoncerning the position of small farmers who did their shearing on a cooperative basis. If a farm hand assisted with the crutehing of a small flock, would he first have to join the New Zealand Workers' Union and then be paid the rates of pay prescribed by the shearers' award? He thought provision should be made to meet the position by exempting men with flocks of not more than 600 or 700 ewes. There was going to be the strongest objection to that section of the Bill bringing the small dairy farmer with sheep within the scope of the Arbitration Court. Mr C. H. Chapman (Govt. — Wellington North) said the benefits of the Arbitration Court had been negatived by the aecumulation of the work before the Court. He outlined the factors which had led to that aecumulation and stated there might be some defects in the system requiring two Courts, but he was sure they were not insurmountable. The Arbitration Court based its decisions on precedent and equity, and as long as that guiding principle was followed there was no likelihood of confusion from the establishment of two Courts. Mr Bodkin's Challenge. Mr W. A. Bodkin (Opposltion — Central Otago) challenged Mr Chapmau's srtatement that the Government stood for orderly methods in the settlement of disputes, and cited the Government 's attitude in the recent freezing works stay-in strike in Auckland, when the employers had been their rights as individuals of police assistance in regaining possession of their property. . Surely one of. the fundamental principles, he said, was to give protection to hoth the person and property of individuals, but in.this case the Government had ccased to i'unction as a 1 Government at all. The Government 's action was complet^ Tepudiation of the award and everything that the Arbitration CoUrt stood for. Mr W. J. Lyon (Govt. — Waitemata) • said Mr Bodkin had stressed a side of the Auckland freezing works case which was likely to provide valuable political capital for the Opposition, but he had failed to outline the side of the case which showed the Government up in a very favourable liglit. He contended a mistake had been made in connection with the Auckland men's award, which inflicted an injustice* on one section of the employees, and it was the Minister 's duty to see that the injustice was rectified. This had been done. He pointed out tbat, while the men , had been engaged in their stay-in strike t^ey had organised gangs to clean up the works, and when the strike was over the works were cleaner than they had ever been before. The works had been cleaned from top to bottom. The idea, behind Mr Bodkin's wish for police protection, he said, was that the force should be used and trouble precipitated as a result. Position of Kacing Cluos. Hdn. J. G. Cobbe (Opposition — Oroua) complained of the provision in the Bill relating to racing clubs and chartered clubs, and said he felt.sure meinebrs of the Government representing country constituencies would not welcome it. He suggested it should be withdrawn. The Minister of Mines (Hon. P. C. Webb) stated the Government had conferred with'representatives of the New Zealand Eacing Coni'erence on the Bill and after the provisions of the measure had been explained to them they had been eompletely satisiied. iiacing clubs paid their cmpioyees higher wages than those for casual iabour stipulated iu any award. The racing representativea had "been somewhat apprehensivo in case the Bill affected employees in the totalisators, but when it was explained tliese people ttfould not be concerned with the Bill the icpresentatives were quite satisfied, and, Mr Webb said, hefelt sure no opposition to the Bill would be forthcoming from the racing clubs of the Dominion.

Mr D. W. Coleman (Govt. — Gisborne) held there would be no elashing between the two Arbitration Courts, because the Courts themsclves would arrange which tjrpe of case each. was to take. Ono might conflne itself to compensation cascs, for instancc, and the other to the inaking of awards. The debato was interrupted by the adjoumment at 5.30 p.m. When the House resumed the debate was coniinued by Mr. Coleman, who said it appearcd that tho only means by which unions could get their cases heard by -the Arbitration Court on account of ifhe pressure of work facing that. Court was by taking unconstitutional . action. The provision of a second court and the power given magistrates to hear industrial cases would relieve that position. Compensation Cases. Mr. S. G. Sinitli (Upposition-New Plymouth) said there was provision in the Bill to make tlie appointment of a second Arbitration Court Judge more thaa temporary, .The Minister could

year year. He stated the Judge of the present Court was the greatest authority in the Dominion cm compensation law, and he asked the Minister, when appointing the second Court, if he would appoint the present Jndge of the Arbv* tration Court to deal only with compensation cases, thus having one Court dealing only with this class of case. Eeferring to freezing workers' complaints eoncerning the chain system of killing, he stated that leaders of the old Preezing Workers' TJnion themselves had been responsible for that system. It had only been imposed after the Auckland strike. With ref* erence to Mr. Armstrong's action in connection with that strike, Mr. Srfiith thought interference by Ministers with Judges of the Court must be handled tvith extneme care. He thought Mr. Armstrong himself would have realised that by now. ^ Mr. W. P. Endean (Opposition -Parnell) expressed the opinion that the administration of the industrial laws had led to a woeful lack of efficieney in tlfe industry throughout the Dominion, Watersiders, coal-miners, in fact many branches of labour, were adopting goslow tactics and were attempting to get as much as they could for as little : effort as possible, It was a policy which was proving seriously detrimeni tal to the Dominion. The Labour Department and the actions of the Minister had been hopelessly astray. Minister in Eeply. With regard to the citation clause, the Opposition 's contention that every individual employer party to an award I should be cited was wrong in theory, j said the Minister, Hon. H. 9 J. Arm- ' strong, in reply. Would the Opposition | expect employers to cite every individj ual employee who was to be governed j by an award? The suggestion that industrial magistrates in the larger ' centres should be empowered to visit smaller centres to hear cases was quite a good one, and in all possibility this would be done. There would be coordination between two Arbitration Courts, he said, and he thought most of the difficulties feared by the Opposition would he overcome by the adoption of common-sense methods. ■ Speaking of the amount of work awaiting the Arbitration Court, the Minister said there were 47 awards and 24 compensation cases awaiting the Court 's considcration in Auckland, 44 . awards and 59 compensation cases in Wellington, and 21 awards and nine compensation cases in Dunedin. He did aot have the figures for Christchurch, but he thought they would be siinilar to those of Wellington. It would take the Court till March to clean up the work in Auckland and three months more to deal with that in Wellington, while considerable work still awaited it In the south. Altogether there were S02 cases awaiting consideration withDut counting those of Christchurch. Ho tontended the appointment of industrial magistrates would greatly facilitate the clearing up of arrears of work. The Minister said that the leader of the Opposition had continued to criticise the basic wage and its effects on the youth of the country. He wishcd Eor its repeal, beeause young people were being dismissed when they reaehed the years of adulthood. If the Government increased the age when the . basic wage applied to 31, the Opposition would want it increased to 41, and then would want it increased to 51. Finally, people would be getting the old-age pension before they received the basic wage. The leader of the Opposition knew that employers had dismissed adults and employed youths and girls right througfe'the ages. Dealing with his action eoncerning the Auckland strike, he said he had not wanted to butt in if he could help it, but his telep^one had not ceased to ring with requests that he should come to Auckland and settle the strike. Ha had also received scores of letters and telegrams, all from. employers' organisations, urging him to settle the strike. At last Cabinet had agreed he should go, and when the strike had been settled a sigh of relief had gone up in business circles in Auckland. If a firm stand had not been taken and the strike settled, it would have extended beyond Auckland. The Minister proceeded to detail his actions in tho settling of the dispute, stating he had visited four freezing works and had talked to the strikers until he hadn't a whisper left. His audiences had been hostile to him at first, but he had directed them to come out of the works that day. The men had done so. "I asked them/' saidMr. Armstrong, "whether they were going to rule the country or whether we were. I said we wero. I then told the men to resume work on Monday and that also was done." Eacing clubs, said Mr. Armstrong, had been quite satisfied with the provisions of th8 Bill when they had been explained to them, and the Bill would not force small farmers shearing sheep | on a co-operative system to join the shearers' unions if they were not required to do so under the existing legislation. • .

When tho Bill reaehed the committeu stage, Mr. Hamilton said the Minister had evaded the point in connection with the Auckland strike. That was, he had overridden his own Court 's award. He was entitled to credit for settling the strike. Amendment Defeatefl. Mr. Smitk moved an amendment to clause three of the Bill so that nominated members of the Court would be appointed by the employers and workers and not nominated by Minister. The amendment was lost on tho voices. Mr. A, C. A. Sexton (IndependentFrankton) moved an amendment to clause 5 to exempt small mixed fajmers from the provisions of the shearers' award, provided they possessed fewer than 500 ewes on their farms'. Tho amendment was defeated by 35 votes to 15. The third reading was pawsril ..ud tho House ro£e at 10.55 until 10.3ft a.m^ J "v, '