INDUSTRIAL BILLS AMENDED

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21802, 6 June 1936, Page 18

INDUSTRIAL BILLS AMENDED

NEW PROVISION FOR SUNDAY WORK

CORRECTION OF AWARD CLAUSE

MINISTER’S EXPLANATION [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, June 5. Special amendments under the Constitution Act to all three industrial bills passed by Parliament this session were introduced in the House of Representatives by Gover-nor-General’s Message to-day. The Minister for Labour (the Hon. H. T, Armstrong) explained that the Crown Law Office had held that the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill, the Factories Amendment Bill, and the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill, were all so closely related that it was advisable for them to be reviewed by the law draftsman in order to see that there was no conflict in any of the provisions.

Two main amendments have been made to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill in the clause empowering an inspector of awards to recover arrears "of wages on behalf of a worker subject to an award or industrial agreement. The provision dealing with false statements by workers has been deleted and a new sub-clause has been added stating that no proceedings are to be taken by an inspector in any case where he has reason to believe that default by an employer in payment of wages is due to misrepresentations made by a worker. Registration of Unions Clause 10 of the bill prpvides for the registration of industrial unions covering two or more industrial districts. After it a new clause has been inserted stating that an application for a Conciliation Council hearing of any industrial dispute affecting two or more industrial districts may be made by any union of employers or workers registered as such, in respect of the industrial districts concerned, whether or not the membership of the union is limited to those districts.

The Minister explained in the House that the provisions of the bill allowing for the formation Zealand unions automatically cancelled associations of unions, which could not have applied for a Dominion award. The new clause has rectified that position. Several technical amendments have been made to the Factories Amendment Bill, but the only one of real importance is that deleting Sunday work from the clause which originally dealt with work on both statutory holidays and Sunday. r A new clause has been inserted dealing specifically with wages payable on Sundays. It is stated that where any worker employed in a factory in which work is regularly performed on Sundays is actually employed on a Sunday, he is ‘to receive his ordinary rate of pay plus payment for the time worked on Sunday at not less than the ordinary rate. In factories where Sunday work is not regularly performed, it must be paid for at not less than double the ordinary rate, although it is provided that where the ordinary rate is by time and not by piecework the rate payable must not be less than Is 6d an hour and must be paid for at the first regular pay-day after the work is performed. The Blanketing Clauses Amendments have been made to the blanketing clauses in both the Factories Amendment Bill and the Shops and Offices Amendment Bill. These clauses provided that the provisions of the new legislation should override existing awards. A proviso has been added to both of them stating that application of the clauses shall not reduce the rate of wages payable to any worker under an award or industrial agreement, nor increase his working hours.

There was a long discussion of the amendments after they were circulated, the Hon. A. Hamilton (Nat., Wallace) declaring that to study them would involve days of work. He claimed that the procedure adopted by the Minister was. unprecedented. The Minister stated that he had not asked ‘for the amendments, which had beep proposed by the law draftsman after a review of the bills. Had the legislation been allowed to go as it had been passed, there were features of it which would operate against some employers in a way that was never intended. The amendments were agreed to.