CONFERENCE URGED.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 243, 14 October 1929, Page 9

CONFERENCE URGED.

WORKERS AND EMPLOYERS.

ARBITRATION COURT'S

DEFECTS

CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

SUGGESTION.

Closer co-operation between employers and employees in industry was urged this morning at the annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce, when a remit was carried recommending the Government to convene another National Industrial Conference similar to that held in April and May of last year. It was felt that the last conference was productive of much good, and further mutual discussion of the problems associated with industrial employment would ensure beneficial relationships of capital and labour interests. Criticism was levelled at the arbitration system, the contention being advanced that it was a ban to progress. "I am convinced that the method of settling industrial problems by mutual consideration and discussion between the parties principally concerned is the only way in which ouch problems can ever be satisfactorily settled in the interests of the community as a whole," said Mr. D. J. McGowan, in moving the remit. "One of the wonderful things accomplished in the 192S conference was the reconciliation of the views of all sections of the employers. For the firet time in our history the Fanners' Union, the Sheepowners' Union, the dairy farmers, the Employers' Federation, the chambers of commerce and the Manufacturers' Association adopted a common platform and spoke with one united voice. That association has been maintained and the dairy farmers and sheepowners are now working harmoniously with the Employers' Federation in industrial matters. Employers' Proposal. "The conference also brought the employers and workers much nearer together on the question of industrial arbitration. We are all agreed that our arbitration laws need amending. The remedy proposed by the employers was the retention in the system of the present machinery for bringing the parties to industrial disputes together in conciliation and the substitution of optional arbitration for compulsory arbitration. If the proposal ever becomes law we shall have all the machinery for bringing the parties in industry together; we shall place upon them the duty of working out the salvation of the industry which employs them, and we shall preserve the Arbitration Court as at present constituted as a tribunal to which they can appeal if they find the settlement of any matters beyond their own powers and they mutually elect to leave the settlement to the Court. We will abolish, however, the right of either one party to force the other party to take a decision from the Court of Arbitration, which exists to-day. It has been found that the present system is a failure when enforcement of the Court's awards on the workers is necessary against their will, and when industry has to contend with difficult circumstances.

The Court's Difficulty. "A Court cannot depart from its own standards," continued Mr. McGowan. "It cannot discriminate between one industry and another. Having said that certain conditions are to be observed in all industries', that certain wages are to be paid to each class of workers, it cannot single out an industry and say to that industry that the standard shall not apply. If it were not so, a Court would find itself swamped with difficulties, because every decision given, departing in any way from its standards, would be seized upon as a precedent.

"A general alteration is not what is wanted. Our proposal would maintain the general standard of living, but it would enable cases of necessity in industry to be specially provided for by the parties most concerned. That the suggestions are practicable is shown by the fact that certain industries are now been successfully carried on outside the provisions of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and the placing of responsibility on the shoulders of each section of industry, worker and employer, on an equal basis has had beneficial results." "A Bar to Progress." "One of the most serious aspects of the arbitration system is how it prevents employers and employees from coming together," said Mr. H. S. Turner, of Canterbury, in urging, another conference and stressing the necessity for a wider disseminating of facts concerning industry. The Court was wrong, uneconomic and a bar to progress. A further conference would lead to the realisation by the employees that they were partners in industry. Progress was not possible without their co-opera-tion.