NO UNANIMITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 285, 1 December 1936, Page 8

NO UNANIMITY.

ARBITRATION COURT.

FUTURE CONSTITUTION

ATTITUDE OF UNIONISTS,

There is general' feeling of dissatisfaction among unionists at the manner in which the Arbitration Court is functioning, but there appears to be no unanimity as to how the Court might be re-arranged or reconstituted to meet the desires of all sections of the industrial Labour movement.

Union secretaries who were consulted this morning admitted that the Court was not functioning as expeditiously and satisfactorily as desired and suggested ways and means by which its working might be improved, but they confessed that the industrial movement had not advanced any views on the subject that were acceptable to unionists as a whole. Industrial Conference ? When the possibility of an industrial conference being called to discuss the question was mentioned, it was pointed out that such a conference was not likely to be productive of unanimity. "If ten committees were set up to bring down a report 011 the subject every report would bo different. The ideas on the subject would be as many and varied as those of children round a Christmas tree," said one secretary. "We don't want to scrap the Arbitration Court until we have found something better. But if we can find something better, let us have it by all means. While I have not studied the question at any great length, I do not know at the

moment of any other form of organisation which might supplant the Court. The average union in Great Britain prefers direct action, but direct action can only be really effective in the case of key industries.

"The Arbitration Court is the more peaceful method of settling disputes, and so far as I am aware there is no move to depart from 1 it. I admit, however, that the Court might be improved, and among suggestions made in this

connection is that that separate tribunals should be set up to handle compensation cases and industrial matters. This would tend to expedite the handling of industrial disputes, and would remove some of the grounds for complaints that are at present being made against the Court. Another proposal is that a temporary Court should be created to relieve the existing tribunal of some of its work when a rush of work developed. If the latter procedure were adopted, the judge of the subsidiary Court could be engaged as the chairman of commissions when his services were not required as an arbitrator. Need to Strengthen Court. "We want the Court strengthened and extended, but we really have not discussed the question as a body," said another secretary. "There is really nobody in the industrial movement who could make an authoritative pronouncement at the moment as to what should be done with the Arbitration Court. As far as can be judged, no one is satisfied with it, one of the reasons for this being that it is overloaded with work. Another is that it is not functioning in accordance with the exigencies of the various trades owing to the fact that it is far too rigid. Possibly something along the lines of the Arbitration Act in New South Wales might be desirable, but when we talked of amending the New Zealand Act last year we discovered that the basis of the two measures was entirely different, and we therefore could not suggest amendments on the lines of the Australian legislation mentioned. If anything is done, it would appear that the present Cqurt would have to be removed and we would j have to get something new to take its! place." j