THE ARBITRATION SYSTEM.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1922, Page 10

THE ARBITRATION SYSTEM.

ITS WORKING IN AUSTRALIA. AGITATORS AND SLACKERS BENEFIT. The working of the arbitration system in Australia was referred to at the annual meeting of the Taranaki Employers’ Association last week by Mr. T. C. List (president of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce), who gave the results of his observations of the working of the system at the special request of the chairman. The arbitration system in New South Wales and Victoria, as far as inquiries over a brief period could show, was not working very satisfactorily, said Mr. List, and was, in fact, breaking down from its own weight and its own inherent defects. During the eighteen years the Couft had been in existence conditions had been improved for the employees, especially for the shearers, who constituted the biggest union in Australia. Wages had increased and the hours of work decreased. The unionists were loyal to the Arbitration Court. Loyalty paid them. Now that the Arbitration Court had ordered a reduction in wages, however, the shearers had become defiant and refused to accept the Court’s ruling. Naturally the employers did not like such a lop-sided arrangement, and they were praying for an alteration. “The Arbitration Court is defeating its own ends,” declared the speaker. It was not conciliating but, through the labor agitators, perpetuating troubles and magnifying small differences into big disputes, whilst since its inception the output of work had been reduced by one-third, according ro the Government Statistician. Though some of the employees might think differently, the Arbitration Court had notr improved their actual conditions. It had certainly improved the lot of the “goslower” and waster, but it penalised the man who desired to get on. The high overtime rates and general restrictions on his liberty of action prevented him from getting together a little money to launch out for himself, as so many had done before, and as so many’ of them in the room that night had done. The good man was denied the opportunity of advancement by the very system that was designed to protect him and end industrial strife. The community suffered in consequence, for the output was reduced and costs naturally rose. It was a fact that the standard was set not by the most efficient but by the lowest and least skilled. The great bulk of the men in Australia, as in this country, desired to do the fair thing, but they were led and controlled by the extremists, who saw no further than the interests of their own class, and not of their country. If Australia and New Zealand were to go ahead industrially and cost of living come down, they must alter the present system. The Arbitration Court, both in Australia and New Zealand, had failed in its object, and ought to be altered or abolished. The speaker criticised its constitution, and said that it would be preferable to create, wages boards in connection with the- various industries to deal with industrial troubles as they arose, the employees and employers each to have a representative on the board and an umpire nominated by the Government. Such a board would be able to deal more intelligently, quickly and satisfactorily with any dispute than a Court constituted of men having no knowledge of the intricacies of a trade in connection with which a dispute had arisen. He felt sure the operations of the present system here and in Australia, was against the interests of both the men and the employers, and therefore of the country. (Applause. ) On concluding, Mr. P. E. Stainton (who presided) conveyed to Mr. List the very best thanks of the meetino: for the valuable first-hand information he had given ’them. *»