INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8876, 9 November 1907, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION BILL.

The Labour Bills Committee has made many amendments in the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Bill. A new clause provides lbat if any member of an Industrial Council fails without reasonable cause to attend the meeting of the Council at which the decision of the Council to be given he may be removed by the Governor, and the Governor may appoint some qualified person in his place. There is an addition to Clause 7, providing that, though an Industrial Council shall be dissolved on making its award, the President of such Council shall continue to hold office during the currency of the award, and may, if asked by the parties concerned, give any interpretation of such award, and, with the consent of the Minister, summon the Industrial Council. In Clause 24 the fine for breach of award in the case of a worker has been reduced from £lO to £5. The provision regarding application 'f line being at the discretion of the Magistrate (Clause 26) has been struck out, ahd all fines are under the amendment made to be paid into the Consolidated Fund. i

Section 5 of tha principal Act is amended to provide that seven (instead of two) persons in the case of employers and twenty-five (instead of seven) persons in the case of workers may be registered as an Industrial Union. In connection with the appointment of members of the Arbitration Court, it is proposed to give every union having not more than fifty members one vote, and everj union having more than fifty members one vote for every fifty of its members.

The age'of apprentices has been extended from twenty-one to twentyfive years. -An addition has been made to the clause regarding permits lor undsr-rate workers as follows: — "Such permit shall only be valid for the period for which it is granted, may be renewed on application. Any holder of a permit working contrary to the award, after the expire ation of such permit shall be guilty of an offence, and liable to a penalty not exceeding £5." Clause 53 has been amended tn provide that no member cf an Industrial Association, as well as no member of a Union, shall be on the committee of management unless he has been or is engaged in the industry concerned. There has been added a provision that this section shall not apply to any industrial union so long as the members of rhat union are less than seventy-five in number, or to any industrial union so long as a majority of its members are women. There is a new section providing for validation by the Court of things informally done if the Court so thinks fit. No barrister or solicitor is to be allowed to. appear before an industrial council on the hearing .of an industrial dispute.' 1