FARMERS AND THE ARBITRATION COURT.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17170, 30 March 1927, Page 4

FARMERS AND THE ARBITRATION COURT.

■ The general public is at the present i i time an interested spectator of the j i most infiuenti,al attack which has I ! yet been made upon the Arbitration j ; C'ourt. It has come from the farm- | S Ing community, and may correctly j j be aittributed to the observations j i rnade by the IPresidenJt hy the j S Court in the memorandum attached ! to the recent award in the meat j I freezing industry. The Minister of | ( Labour, replying to a deputation of j southern farmers last week, remarked that in view of the influential demands which had been made, the Government would have to consider the position. Certain amendments to the Act were contemplated, but he would not recommend the abolition j of the Arbitration Court unless | those wlio advocated this step could i submit a better substitute. It is understod th'at, apart from the farmers' .agitation, employers generally are divided as to the abolition of j the Court. Those who prefer the ; existing order of things, however, 1 are influenced less hy their admiration for the. system than by their inability to iind something satisfactory to replace it. In this th'ey are in iine with the Minister of Labour. 1 As the "Dominion" points out the weakness of.the present arbitration system is that while it can order a cert.ain rate of wages to be paid it cannot, except in some industries where piecework is practised, fix the amount of work to be dorie in return. More than that, by imposing upon employers elaborate conditions undei^ which the work of their. particular industries must be performed, it places a severe limitafion upon the utilisation of up-to-date possibilities of reorganising iudustrial methods for increased pi'Oudction. "What must be emphasised. however, is the fallacy and utter fufility of divorcing the related ques'tions of wages and production. Yet that is exactly what the Arbitration Court has done, in effect, by fixing wages on the false basis of the cost of living, instead of on the true basis of the rate of production. In the course of his reply to the farmers' deputation, the Minister of Labour pointed out that if the Court were abolished the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act would then, unless it were repealed, take its place, and round-the-table conferences would have to be held to adjust wages' and conditions of emplovment. One objection to that. he said. wouid he that the public wdhld not, as it is now, be represented. The Judge of the Arbitration Court 'had to protect the inter-: ests of the public as well as those of the parties. This may be so in theory, but its value is more academic than real. Long experience of Ihe working of f.he system has convinced the public that industrial awards as a rule represent the, maximum of give and take by the parties concerned, and that their usual effect has been to increase the cost of living. It is just possible that if the artifieial organisation of industry by the Arbitration Court were ta cease and round-the-table conferences take its place, the way would be cleared for a comipg together of emnloyers . and workers for mutually beneficial co-operation in the direction of a reform of industrial methods. A decision of this kind, however, would have to be preceded by a clear understanding on both sides of the underlying principles of up-to-date methods in industry. t