CIVIL SERVANTS AND UNIONISM

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 180, 30 July 1913, Page 4

CIVIL SERVANTS AND UNIONISM

We cAnDOi understand the altitude taken up by the members of Parliament who have been urging, in the House, that the members of the Police Force should he allowed to form any sort of association they please, and presumably to attach themselves to any outside Labour organisation at their own discretion. It cannot be too often repeated that State employees are in a very exceptional position, and that their duties to the Government and to the community are balanced by corresponding privileges and rights. They have liberty to associate as they please within the limits of the Civil Service: they have recourse for the redress of their grievances to their departmental heads, to Ministers, and to Parliament: while special Appeal Boards are frequently instituted to ensure justice for them. But beyond this, we cannot see that the State can justifiably go. more especially as regards the Police. As guardians of the peace they are in precisely the same position as soldiers, and."as Mr. licrdman argued yesterday, it would be absurd to contend that the British Army could safely be registered as a I-abour Union. What would happen if industrial trouble should arise, in the form of a general strike, and the Police Forep were affiliated to the Federation of l_bour or some other militant organisation? The position which Government is asked to take up is simply impossible, and we regret that party prejudice should so far have blinded certain members of the House to the difficulties which the Minister for Justice has to face in regard to this question. We entirely agree with Mr. Herdraan that, if such an association as is demanded were once established all possibility of enforcing discipline among the police would be at an end. The Minister might well ask what would have occurred during the Waihi strike supposing such an association had existed, and had been under the influence of tbe Federation of Labour. The plain truth is that all Civil Servants occupy an entirely peculiar and exceptional position in the community; and while every effort should be made to secure their rights and protect their interests, the paramount duty of Government is to defend the general public from any injury that might be caused T>y the suspension of the public services or the neglect oi the duties that tbe State employees are supposed to perform. We arc convinced that the law already provides for t:ie police ample opportunities to voice their grievances and to secure their rights; and we are equally convinced that any possibuity of involving the Police Force in industrial disputes would be disastrous to the maintenance of law and order and detrimental to the interests of the whole commumtv.