COMPULSORY UNIONISM

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25548, 16 July 1948, Page 3

COMPULSORY UNIONISM

AWARD UPHELD BY APPEAL COURT APPLICATION OF 1936 ACT DEFINED (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 15. The Court of Appeal to-day delivered judgment m a case, heard on June 21, stated by the Arbitration Court for an opinion as to the effect of a clause in the Dental Technicians’ Award prohibiting the employment of non-unionists. It had been submitted for the defendant, Evan Wilfred Williams, a dental surgeon, ot Auckland, who contested the award, that Section 18 of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1936, allowed nim to employ a non-unionist dental assistant as long as there was no unionist available to take the position. The Court held that Section 18 applied only to adult workers employed when the act came into force in 1936, and did not exempt workers commencing employment after that date from the necessity of joining a union. A dental surgeon was not entitled to employ adult workers whose employment commenced after the passing of the 1936 act, unless they were union members, even though there was no member of the union available and willing to accept such employment.