CONTRACTS AND PIECE-WORK.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 26 September 1913, Page 4

CONTRACTS AND PIECE-WORK.

There is a clause in. the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill- which, if allowed to pass in its present form, will mean the deathblow to. contracting and piece-work. Clause 152 says: "N* person shall be freed or discharged from any liability or penalty, or from the obligation of any industrial agreement or award, bv reason of any contract made or entered into by him or on his behalf." The obvious meaning of this clause is that an employer would be compelled to pay award wages, and observe all the terms of an award in respect to overtime, etc., notwithstanding that by letting a contract he has rid himself of all power of supervision. It need hardly be said that if this clause were allowed to pass, sub-contracting and piece-work would be a thing of the pa-st. We do not consider that the industrial conditions of the Dominion warrant such a revolutionary, change. Indeed, the proposal is of such a vicious character that it must be strenuously opposed by every employer of labour in the Dominion. .We trust that the Employers' Federation and kindred bodies will lose 110 time in making to the Government on the subject.