NEW CARPENTERS’ AWARD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21812, 18 June 1936, Page 7

NEW CARPENTERS’ AWARD

SPECIAL PROCEDURE ADOPTED JOINING ALL EMPLOYERS Because of the very large number of individual employers in the building trade, and the impossibility of naming them all in the citation for a new award for the trade, special provisions of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act are being invoked by the secretary of the Amalgamated Carpenters' and Joiners' Union (Mr E. C. Sutcliffe). By 3 declaration under section 81 of the 1925 act he is asking the Arbitration Court to join as parties to the award all employers not named in the citation who are employing labour to which the award relates. Conciliation proceedings for the new award Are set down to begin in Wellington on July 21. This step is being taken because in the past when awards have been brought into force for the building industry some employers have always been missed. This has meant that these employers have been ablo to employ non-union labour because the award does not apply to them. Overcoming Difficulties Mr Sutcliffe has made use in the forthcoming cit.ltion list for the new carpenters' and joiners' award of the provisions of section 81 of the 1925 act, reinforced by section 23 of the 1936 act, which allow a statutory declaration to be made and attached to a list of the majority of the employers covered by the award, asking the court to make an order joining all other parties subject to the award who are not mentioned in the citation but who are employing labour to which the award relates at the date of its being made. If the court follows this procedure the difficulties faced in the past will be overcome, and all employers will be parties to the award. Anyone subsequently starting in business will be automatically joined to the award. With all the employers, without exception, subject to the award, the compulsory unionism clauses of the act will ensure that all the employees are members of *ie union. In the building trade the award already makes specific mention of foremen, so that there is no doubt whatever, under section 18 cf the new act, that they must be members of the union. Apprentices are not affected by this provision, for they are governed not by the award, but by an apprenticeship order. This is so even if they are over the age of 18, at which the provisions of the act apply.