CLERICAL UNIONS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 178, 29 June 1937, Page 2

CLERICAL UNIONS.

QUESTION OF VALIDITY. CASE IN APPEAL COURT. Per Press Association. WdlduNuioN, June 23. A case raising the question or ihe valiuuy of all clerical unions legiswired til New Zeaiund, the'membership of which nunibeis about 2u,vJuu, is being considered to-day by the Appeal court, The case is mat of me omgo and Southland iSiook and Stauon Agents' Clerical, ilimployees' Trade L u 10 u and others (p.aiiitiths) v. tne Juug-e and members ui tne Arbitration. Coii.i, me Otago Clerical Workers industrial cuion and the Registrar oi industrial onions (defendants). The case was removed uom Dunedin by order ot Mr Justice Kennedy into tire Court of Appeal.

i he piauit.ff union is a duly registered nit uni under the Trades Union Act, ir-Ot, its members comprising employees in various stock and station agent companies in Otago and Southland, and in October, IUbO, entered into an industrial agreement with the employers. The omer plaintiffs are the omcers ot the Otago Stock and Station Agents’ Employees’ Society, lormed tor l.ke purposes as the plaintiff union; hut when the" society applied for registration as an industrial union the application was refused on the ground that the society could belong to the Otago Clerical AA r orkers’ Union (defendant.un.on), registration of which as an industrial union the plaintiffs allege was not lawful.

The plaintiffs further contend that the deieiidant union was granted an award by the Arbitiation Court which applied not to an industry but to all the clerical workers in the Otago portion of the industrial district.

They claimed: (a) That clerical work is not an industry within the meaning of the industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and that the defendant union is not a society or union within the meaning of the Act; (b)' that as the union is not a union within the meaning of the Act nor authorised to be registered, the above-mentioned award is a nullity and was made by the Arbitration Court without jurisdiction ; (e) 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 are employed in practically every industry in New Zealand, but clerical work itself is not an industry. Throughout New Zealand there have been registered what are known as general clerical unions, having as members clerks in every conceivable form of business and industry. The question for discussion was whether those unions were valid and whether the awards made by the Court are valid awards.