Compulsory Arbitration.

Press, Volume XLIV, Issue 19389, 15 August 1928, Page 8

Compulsory Arbitration.

We; print this morning a cable from Sydney announcing that the Australian Employers' Federation is endeavouring far replace compulsory arbitration in. labour disputes by conciliation. The further statement that most Labour leaders aire in favour of this change sounds too good to be true, but it is at least true that the Labour "movement, both here and in Australia, is not unanimously in favour of the present system. But the question of the merits of compulsory wage-fixing is not merely an issue between employers and Workers; it,affects the community as a /whole and particularly, as it happens, the farmers. It is the fact that wage-fixing, besides being hostile to the true spirit of conciliation/ has been found in practice to place an unfair burden on primary industry that has given rise to a Btrong agitation in New Zealand for the abolition of'the Arbitration Court. The. main result of this agitation so far has been the calling of an Industrial Conference .which discussed this and endless other topics,, passed, a few: harmless resolutions, and dispersed. Those who see the weak-, ness and unfairness of the Court will not allow the issue to be side-stepped again; and a similar agitation in Australia will strengthen their hand. The abolition- of in this country would not mean a!return to laissezfaire, as. is so commonly argued; the Labour Disputes Investigation Act, put on the Statute Book as a result of the 1913 iwatersiders' strike, provides all the machinery necessary for ensuring that strikes or lock-outs shall be used only as a last resort in industrial disputes. Under this Act, which does not apply to unions registered under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and has very rarely been used, a union must notify the Minister for Labour of any dispute with the employers. The dispute is then referred to ,a committee of representatives of each side with an independent chairman. This committee, the proceedings of which are public, will submit recommendations to the Minister and to each side. If the union is still not satisfied it may call a strike, provided the consent of a majority of the members has

been obtained by a secret ballot. Similar provisions apply to the employers. The whole object of the Act is to allow public opinion to make its weight felt in the dispute, since it is public opinion in the end that decides all industrial disputes. The cumbrous machinery of wage-fixing does not even recognise the existence of the general public.