ARBITRATION ACT.

Shannon News, 2 December 1927, Page 3

ARBITRATION ACT.

MR. LINKLATER'S SPEECH IN HOUSE. In speaking on the second reading of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act in the House on Wednesday night, Mr. J. Linklater, M.P., said he wished, in the first place to compliment the Minister for bringing down this Bill, which he prophesied would be received by the farming community with a great deal of satisfaction. He had, he said, had the privilege of being a member of the commitee which investigated this matter, and took evidence in regard to the provisions of the Bill. He agreed with what had been said with regard to the evidence given against the Bill. There was no doubt that a great deal of evidence was given against the measure as compared with that given in its favour, because no less than 27 trade union secretaries and members of employers' associations opposed the Bill whereas only 17 witnesses supported it. Amongst those seventeen, several did" not refer at all to the provisions of the Bill, but simply asked that the farmers should be exempted from the operation of the Arbitration Act. The Employers' Federation officials and the Union secretaries naturallv gave their evidence more clearly than those witnesses who had never been before the Arbitration Court, and to a certain extent the witnesses on behalf of the farmers suffered in comparison . As far as he was concerned he wanted to say that he came to the conclusion that the majority of the witnesses were not concerned about the amoirnt of money paid to the men engaged in the dairy factories; what interested them more particularly was that there would be undue interference with the work of the dairy factories by „union. secretaries. One witness after another stated that he was not concerned about the wages question at all, and some witnesses submitted figures to prove that the employees were just as well, off prior to the making of their awards as after the award was made. They were of opinion that if they had to work under the. Arbitration' Act the interference with the men would be a serious trouble with which they would have to deal. Some of the factories represented by witnesses had been running for 15 years without any award and, the witnesses gave evidence to the effect that very little serious trouble had arisen. ~ Some of those factories had had tribunals set up within the industry itself, and it appeared to him that something of that kind would be a reasonable procedure to adopt in the future. Mr. Linklater said he believed that it would be against the interests of the industry to continue working under the Arbitration Act, and he was of opinion that the farmers and others interested in the dairying were very wise to ask to be exempted from the operation of the Act. Several industries were well organised and there was no doubt that they were using their organisation in a direction inimical to the interests of the fanners. He instanced the freezing industry, and said he thought it would be admitted that the slaughtermen as a whole, were not at present working with a view to helping that industry. Mr Armstrong: They are not being exempted. Mr Linklater: I know that. They arc working under the provisions of the Arbitration Act at the present time, and the men are not working in the interests of the farmers of the country. Continuing, he said' that it had been stated that there was no suggestion of the workers'of New Zealand adopting the tactics of "go-slow,"' and he believed to a very large extent that this was so; but they knew in connection with the freezing works that the slaughtermen were capable of killing a greater number of lambs and sheep pei day than they were permitted to do by the Union officials. At the present time they were restricted to killing 90 sheep 'and 100 lambs per man per day, whereas everyone knew perfectly well that a good slaughterman war capable of killing 100 sheep and 120 lambs per day. The result was that in consequence of that section the overhead expenses were very much greater than they should be, while in addition the efficient man was brought down to the level of the inferior workman. Tactics of that kind were not in the interests of the workers themselves, and it was unfair that restrictions of thai kind should be imposed upon them by the Union officials. Many slaughtermen .looked forward to the killing seasou as the time when they could make "a good cheque, and it was wrong that they should be prevented from doing so." Evidence was given before the committee by the secretary of the Shearers' Union to the effect that he hoped the time would come when the shearer would be paid wages because he did not believe in the principle ot I piecework payment. Mr Linklater believed that this idea would be condemned by both owner and shearer j alike. In' his opinion the piecework system was- the proper system because it enabled the efficient worker to secure, better payment for his industry. It was suggested by some of the witnesses that the men.would work faster and that accidents might occur as a result, or that a man might injure himself by working too hard. In that respect they had the opinion of our pioneers in the early history of New land. They worked very hard indeed, they did not know of the "go slow" poliev, and many of them lived to a ripe old age. I support the Bill, and will do my best to see it passed into law, said Mr Linklater in conclusion.