Flaxmills' Employees' Federation

Maoriland Worker, Volume I, Issue 7, 20 March 1911, Page 2

Flaxmills' Employees' Federation

The Contract System

When the contract system was inaugurated in the Manawatu Flaxmilis it was recognised at once to be a cunning more on the part of employers to evade the terms of the awan-d governing the industry. Deputations waited on the Hon. J. A. Millar. Promises were given titaat legislation would be "brought down immediately. As time passed and nothing was done the Minister of Labour was written to reminding him of hi& promise, when he replied giving a statement of what he intended doing. Still nothing was "done, and again Mr Millar was written to. After the close of the Federation of Labour conference in AVellington last year, a deputation from the Federation to the Cabinet again brought the question forcibly before the Minister. He again admitted that something would have to be done to oure- the evil, and on that occasion promised an amending Bill which would make it illegal for an employer, to engage workers on a contract, the price of which worked out at less than the .Arbitration Award rate. This amending Act was promised "before Parliament rises." Parliament rose three months 'ago, but the amending Bill had not even been introduced. The Flaxmill Employees Union therefore have caused the following letter to be sent to the Minister : —

AN OPEN LETTER To The HONOURABLE J. A. MILLAR,

Minister of Labour.. Sir, —We wish to address to you., being the representative of organised Labour in the House, a few words on the subject of consistency, and we have chosen this method as being less cumbersome and (Scots .blood running through us!) less expensive than the customary deputation. Indeed, we may plead a certain weary distrust of the results of deputations for reasons which will subsequently appear. Some sage has denned happiness as "the sense of constant progress towards a desirable object.- Progress, - however, is a purely relative term. The National Debt of New Zealand, for instance, progresses in one way ; the SAviss avalanche, whereon rests a village rushing towards its doom at the rate of onemillionth part of a millimetre per hundred years, also progresses in quite another way. Taking these two as illustrations of the extremes of progress, we are. forced to the conclusion that the latter is a fair definition of the rate at which industrial matters progress .beneath the beneficent sway of the present Government and under the immediate guidance of yourself, the Department of Labour, and presumably the Employers' Federatkm. Arid in spite of this constant progress, we are nob happyIn April, 1909 the contract system, which owed its inception to the admitted ability of Mr W. Pryor, was started in the flaxmilling industry. Full particulars of this were laid before you by a deputation, and you promised, should the facts be borne out, to introduce legislation nullifying this attempt to defeat the Act. Such legislation would be brought down "that, session, if possible." That the facts stated were borne out was proved by your letter of December 10, 1909, wherein you stated, regarding a proposed amendment: "In this Bill I propose to put a clause dealing with the contract system which I hope will meet the case and also meet with the

approval of the House. I liope to : have this Bill circulated shortly." With this confirmation of your definite promise before us we waited. We waited with what patience we might until July, 1910, when we again reminded you by letter of your pledge, and upon receipt of your reply we laid before each member of the House a circular containing the main facts of the contract system, along with Mr W. Pryor's views thereon, part of which ran as follows:— In the first place Mr Pryor considered it would mean the salvation of the flax -milling industry in the Wellington district, ,but beyond that it would also have farreaching effects in any industry to which the contract system was applicable, . inasmuch as it clearly affirmed the principle that the establishment of the relation of employer and contractor, instead of master and servant, released the parties thereto frOm the provision of any award. Therefore in any industry;, to which the contract system can be applied, when a bona-fide contract establishing the relation of employer and contractor has been entered into, "Within the jurisdiction of the Arbitration Court, the parties to the contract are not b«ajjjnd by the provisions of any existing award,. Mr Pryor himself does not hesitate to describe it as one of, if not the most, important interpretations ever made in the Arbitration Court. We prefer to take the view of "our friend the enemy" as being free from any suggestion of bias in our favour. We claim to be good judges of the accuracy of such views (it is our tails that will be twisted), and we certainly think that Mr Pryor has not overstated the case above. "In any; industry to which the contract system can be applied"-—i.e., in nearly every one, -the award therein " existing is held at the pleasure and mercy of the Employers' Federation. We challenge you to contradict this statement. In April, you admitted the system was an award-beater; in December of the same year you confirmed it; in July, 1910, you; re-coa-firined your opinion—and now the Bill doing- away with this system has been put back again "till next session." We would here say clearly and- distinctly that as far as this Union is concerned the amendment may as well be put back till after November, 1911. We are weary alike of a Minister and an Administration whose main doctrine would appear to be the Almighty attribute that "a thousand years in their sight are but as a day." To conclude with, allow us to use an illustration from an Eastern source; A Dervish met a camel in the desert. "O Brother," said the Dervish, "your lip is very crooked." "But," queried the camel, "what is there straight about mc that you should take exception to my lip?" It is impossible in the space at our disposal to do more than deal with the "lip" of this matter, but if you wish to see how Ministerial slackness and Governmental apathy find their reflex in departmental dilatoriness we shall be pleased to provide you with samples. For the present we ask you to "bear in mind that the Arbitration Act exists not by pleasure of the Government, but .by courtesy of the Government's ally, the Employers' Federation of New Zealand . : —We are, sir, Richard H. Dalhottsie, President. Percy T. Robinson, Secretary. Manawatu Flaxmills Employees' Union.