INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 155, 4 July 1927, Page 9

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

QUESTION OF CITATIONS.

DEFUNCT REGISTERED ROLLS.

NECESSITY FOR MORE CARE.

Tho necessity for persons filing citations in connection with industrial disputes to satisfy themselves that the people cited are actually in business was stressed at the Arbitration Court this morning by his Honor Mr. Justice Frazer. The matter was introduced as a result of a complaint from the Chief Postmaster (Mr. W. E. Gow) about the difficulty experienced by the Department in dealing with unclaimed registered rolls containing notices of citations for industrial disputes. It was stated that on May 29, and covering a period of several days prior to this, 2270 large registered rolls wen handed in by the clerk of awards in connection wi|h a recent award, and so far 757 of the articles had been returned as unclaimed for the reason that they were "defunct," "deceased," etc.—a percentage of over one-third of the whole. Upon looking into the matter the Department found that many of the firms had been out of business for a number of years. The fact of not having an up-to-date roll for the Auckland district was causing a large amount of unnecessary work, and additional handling that could be avoided.

His Honor said the Court was quite aware that in many cases it was difficult to get a correct list of the parties. They knew also that in some cases businesses changed hands within J;welve months, but it appeared that if proper use were made of the local agents the lists to be cited could be more correctly checked than at present. His remarks were directed at no party in particular—they were applicable to everyone and everybody. The Post Office authorities were complaining bitterly about the matter, and they had reason for their claims. Possibly if a little effort were made to check the lists, instead of merely relying on the old award, the trouble would be remedied to a large extent, and it would save a great deal of time to the post officials and both the Conciliation Court and Arbitration Court. His Honor said he had had to stroke out scores of names owing to late notices coming from the Postal Department.