OTAGO EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 221, 23 October 1909, Page 5

OTAGO EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION.

By Telegrupn.—Press Association. Dunedin, Last Night. The annual meeting of the Otago Employers' Association was held this afternoon. The executive, in the annual leport, states, the membership reached nigh-water mark last year, when almost the whole of the employers in Dunedin Were accounted for. This year the membership was fully maintained. The year opened with a credit balance of £473, And closed with a credit of £473, notwithstanding the fact that expenses were the heaviest in the history of the Association. The report went on to state that some of the amendments promised in connection with the Factories Act were in the interests of employers a< well as workers, and some are not in the interests of either. If the proposal to bring in weekly employment in our manufacturing trades were given effect ta, it would prove a very serious interference with the basis of all labor in these trades, at it would mean paying workers for idle time. In referring to .the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, tile report says that owing to the attitude of the Court in practically calliug a halt to increased wages and reduce wages, and workers realising the uselessness of going before it with increased demands as was their wont every time a term of award expired, they are i now en k'avoring to obtain by conference with employers what they failed to obtain from the Court, and in some instances they have succeeded. Many of the older workers are becoming tir i of the friction, expense and general unrest caused by the Arbitration Court proceeding?, and are exerting their influence in tavor of more conciliatory methods. Thr great majority. of disputes during the past year had been settled without the intervention of the Court. To those who are behind the •cenes, and judging from newspaper reports, the new Act seems to be working particularly well, but such is not quite the case. Two dangers threaten Industrial Councils. The first is the payment of members. In the past, the best work Jus been done bv conferences with a £ood number of representatives on tit&cr side. Xow that workers have di; , covered that there is a guinea a day to bo made Out of sitting as industrial conneillnrs, they demand that the matter be dealt with in council. Rer>—><-. -lives .come to the Council un- ■" : ii.'!ructions, and have no power to -' r tike, and a settlement can oniy '« arrived at by employers giving way.

The second danger is wrought by a sort pf rivalry amongst Commissioners as to which is'the most successful in settling disputes. Se determined have Commissioners liecn at time to secure a settlement that they have advised employers to give way on principles which will feriously prejudice other employers, and in the end cause more disputes than ever, for just so long as the workers of one district or trade have anything that has not been granted to all, so long will : there be trouble and disputes. This as- : pect of the duestion is to be considered hv the New Zealand Employers- fodei.ition «t its iinnual meeting, when no ;> doubt instriictions will he given to all L secretaries to see that cases for emplovC ers are conducted along uniform and ; , iafe lines. .