THE ARBITRATION BILL

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21753, 8 April 1936, Page 17

THE ARBITRATION BILL

TO THB EDITOR OF TUB PRESS. Sir,—There are clauses in the Arbitration Bill which are contradictory to the democratic principles of government by the people. After providing for restoring powers of compulsory reform to the Arbitration Court, for a minimum wage, and when possible a 40-hour week, the bill goes on to compulsory preference to unionists, to the removal of the maximum of one shilling a week for members’ tickets and for the legal right of entry by union secretaries to employers’ premises.

These clauses amount in effect to the prohibition by law .of a man taking work in many trades unless he pays a subscription for the privilege. These subscriptions will total to a sum amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds, a taxation on the working man not levied by Parliament, and the expenditure of which is not under parliamentary control.

Similarly, the legal right of entry by union secretaries means the right of entry by a body of men who are not Government servants nor under the control of the department. Surely such provisions are foreign to the spirit of democracy. Should not the administration of the law be the function of a properlyconstituted Labour Department, whose offices would be at the impartial service of both employer, employed, and such of the public as had interests affected? Should not, too, in making his awards,. a Supreme Court judge weigh carefully not only the interests of those engaged in the particular trade, but the effect of his award on the general welfare?—yours, etc., JET April 7, 1936.