THEATRE WORKERS COMPLAIN OF ANOMALIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 405, 13 July 1928, Page 13

THEATRE WORKERS COMPLAIN OF ANOMALIES

DISPUTE IN DUNEDIN DECISION RESERVED Press Association. WELLINGTON, To-day. An unusual position has arisen in the dispute concerning the front-of-the-house employees in theatres which came before the Arbitration Court today when the Conciliation Council arrived at its recommendations. The Dunedin employers were not represented directly, but by a Wellington man, Mr. Cokson, who stated today that the effect of the new recommendations was to increase the rate by 9s a week, which was out of all proportion to the increases granted to other employees. Dunedin had no continuous pictures, and there were certain anomalies as compared with conditions in other centres. Those variations, he maintained, were caused by an absence of the Dunedin employers’ representative at the Conciliation Council. Mr. Hammond, who appeared for Wellington and Canterbury employers (Auckland is not concerned in the dispute), said it was to be regretted that Dunedin employers should see fit to repudiate the agreement made by their own representative. He said it cast a stigma on all employers of the Dominion if the parties, whether they be employers or workers, were to be allowed to interfere with the recommendations of the Conciliation Councils merely because in some instances there were provisions which did not meet with their approval. The conciliation proceedings would then become a farce.

Workers’ representatives contended that the Court should carry out its agreements made by Conciliation Councils. Judge Frazer pointed out that there was a section in the Act which provided that a recommendation of the Conciliation Council was not binding on the Court, although the Court preferred tht every recommendation should be accepted wherever possible. It might happen sometimes that one section of the employers was not properly represented at the Conciliation Council. Tie was not referring to this case, but such a position was possible. It was a great pity that in this case the representative was not properly instructed as to the conditions appertaining to Dunedin. Judge Frazer said the Court would consider the whole facts and give a decision later.