EMPLOYERS’ CONCERN

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 338, 20 January 1937, Page 5

EMPLOYERS’ CONCERN

GOVERNMENT ACTION ARBITRATION COURT,. “When Awards Suit Labour They Are Sacrosanct.” Press Association—Copyright. Christchurch, Last Night. The executive committee of the Employers’ Association is concerned at a statement which was reported to have been made by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, “that if the Arbitration Court would not rectify the clause in the award giving employers the right to put extra men on the chain teams, then the Government would do so by special validating legislation at the first opportunity.”

“Tliid award of the Arbitration Court is a recent one,” said a statement issued by the Employers’ Association’s executive to-day. “It has been made by a tribunal whose rulings all employers are forced to obey under pain of heavy penalties. When the awards suit labour they are sacrosanct; when they do not suit labour, men defy them and the Government appears to condone law-breaking. It takes no action to enforce the law and promises that clauses in the Arbitration Curts’ awards shall be altered by special legislation.

“The words of the Minister about masters and slaves and his promises to alter the law to suit law-breakers (who were defying the law while he was addressing them) are very disquieting in a British community which is anxious to develop its industrial life in peace. Employers are deeply concerned at this evidence ot partiality on the part of the Government and consider it to be an encouragement to all those who would try to undermine law and order for their own purposee.”