ARBITRATION AMENDMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 21 November 1913, Page 4

ARBITRATION AMENDMENT.

Says the parliamentary correspondent of the Dunedin Star:—The Government pin their faith on their proposals Tn the new Conciliation and Arbitration Bill. It was generally expected a. few weeks ago that the Ministry did not really intend to put the Bill on the Statute Book this session, but it seems clear, now that a portion of it at least must he made law. That portion contains provisions for checking, by means of heavy penalties, strikes and lock-outs. This part of the Bill provides that every employer who is or becomes a party to a lock-out and who at the commencement of a'lock-out is bound by any award or, industrial agreement shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding £SOO. As regards offences in connection with a strike or lock-out, every person who incites, instigates, aids, or abets an unlawful strike or lock-out, or the continuance of any such strike or lock-out, or who incites, instigates, or assists any person to become a party thereto, is liable, if a worker, to a penalty not exceeding £lO (a light penalty if Syndicalism is to rule); if .an employer or any person other than a worker, £500; if n union, industrial association, or society incorporated tinder the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, £IOOO, or £lO for every member thereof. The Bill also provides for the taking of a secret ballot—a method of deciding ,: £hat is not favoured by the advocates of the general strike policy. It will be interesting to see how .the Liberals will ,vote on the new Conciliation and Arbitration Bill ? Will they stand alongside extreme Labour?'