A BLUNDER

Hokitika Guardian, 2 March 1932, Page 3

A BLUNDER

THE ARBITRATION BILL. “MAY HAVE DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES.” AUCKLAND, February 29. In the course of an. editorial tl»e “Auckland Star” says: “If the forecast of the Arbitration Bill is correct, the main r provision of the measure will be a. blunder that may have disastrous consequences. The reported proposal fee an appeal to the court only if both parties agree has the effect of abolishing the court in a number of cases. The exemption of any industry by Order-in-Council is a most dangerous proposal that would open the door to political jobbery «*n a great, scale ami would place the workers in whole. ,industries at the Government’s mercy. “The alternative to the Court remaining as a trusted arbiter between labour and capital is ‘a system of unrestricted competition in which the worker would be beaten down and have to 'accept what he could get and the employer who was really anxious to pay a decent wage would he undercut by less altruistic rivals.’ While tne workers suffer most (and the proposed changes ate to be condemned mainly because they are an attack on the workers’ rights) employers will realise at once that they stand to lose much of the stability produced by the Court’s powers and their prestige is destroyed.”