IMPORTANT RULING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 141, 15 May 1940, Page 9

IMPORTANT RULING

EMPLOYMENT, OF SHEARERS. MUST BE UNIONISTS. r Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, May 14.. An interpretation of the clause in the New Zealand shearers’ and shedhands’ award dealing with the employment of non-union labour, was given by Air Justice Tyndall in a reserved judgment delivered in the Court of Arbitration to-dav. The case was brought by the inspector of awards against Roy Walter Dalrymple and Kenneth Waring Dalrvnipje, farmers, of Bulls, for an alleged breach of the shearers’ and shedliands’ award. The inspector stated at the hearing that a penalty was not asked for, as the action was brought to obtain an authoritative ruling. It was alleged that defendants, who were parties to the award, had employed during September 1939 six men who were not members of the union. Both parties agreed that no members of the union had been available. The Court’s ruling was that the eraplovment of the men constituted a. breach of the award. In a dissenting opinion Mr W. E. Anderson (employers’ representative) said that for all practical purposes the effect of the decision was that an employer where no members of the union were available was unable to carry on business without a breach of the law. Had either Parliament or the Court of Arbitration 'intended to .create such an absurd position such intention would have been more clearly expressed than was the ease.