TRADE UNIONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 52, 29 January 1938, Page 11

TRADE UNIONS

ACTIVITY IN DOMINION. SECRETARY’S FORECAST. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 28. A forecast that 1938 would probably see greater activity on tile part of the trade unions in New Zealand than any other year in the history of the country was made to-day by Mr D. I. McDonald, secretary of the Canterbury Employers’ Association. Thousands of workers and employers throughout the Dominion were covered by the caretakers, cleaners, and liftmen, clerical workers’ and motor mechanics’ awards, explained Mr McDonald. Practically every employer of labour in New Zealand would be affected by one or other of the awards. Many unions were immediately taking advantage of the new method of creating disputes which was brought about by section 5 of. the. Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act, No. 2, 1937. This section no longer made it necessary for unions to cite all the employers in any one industry; it was sufficient if a union cited a registered association of employers. If no such organisation existed, then it was sufficient if a number of representative employers acceptable to the Conciliation Commissioner were cited. Under such circumstances all employers in the industrial district in any industry to which the dispute related would be deemed to be responsible parties as though they had been actually named. “In other words,” said Mr McDonald, “once ‘an award is made in the future it will automatically apply to every employer who employs any worker covered by the particular award. The onus is on the employer to find out whether he has to comply with any particular award. The Department of Labour in Wellington has the question of notification to employers under consideration at the present time; it appears that the only logical method of notification is by means of newspaper advertising.”