CONCILIATION BOARD.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8512, 17 August 1907, Page 6

CONCILIATION BOARD.

A MEMBER'S DUAL POSITION. i OBJECTIONS BY THE EMPLOYERS. i The Conciliation Board held a sitting in Masterton, yesterday morning, to consider the Wellington Operative Bakers' Industrial Union's dispute. The Board comprised Messrs P. J. O'Regan (chairman), A. H. Collins and Cooper (employees),and H. Innis and Bedford (employers). Mr S. E. Wright and Mr J. D. Mackay ap--1 peared for the employers, and Messrs Harland and Westbrook for the employees. Before the Court proceeded with the hearing of the dispute, Mr Wright asked whether Mr Collins, who was sitting on the Board, was still Secretary of the Wellington Bakers' Union. The Chairman, after a brief consultation wih Mi- Collins, replied that such was the case. Mr Wright then stated that he wished to protest against such a thing. He considered that a paid official of one of the parties in the dispute had no right to sit and hear the same dispute, on the grounds that as Secretary of the Union he was bound by the demands of the Union, avid to uphold them, while as a member of the Board he was bound to "consider the case on the weight of the evidence. Mr Westbrook (employees) here entered a protest against Mr Innis sitting on the Board as he was Chairman of the Wellington Employers' Association. Mr Wright contended that the two posits )ns were not analogous. In one rase Mr Collins was a paid official to cr.e of the parties of the dispute, whi'n Mr Innis was only honorary chairman to the Association of Empi- vers generally. The Chairman said that Mr Collins had been properly appointed to the Board, and that any objection to his appointment should be made to Parliament. Mr Wright said he was already aware of that fact, but he wanted to bring the matter prominently before members of Parliament in order that the Act should be amended. The Chairman said that all he could do was to note Mr Wright's objection, and the discussion closed. The Board then proceeded to hear the claims of the parties in the dispute, in camera. The hearing occupied practically aii the afternoon.