COMPOSITE AWARDS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29992, 29 November 1962, Page 16

COMPOSITE AWARDS

Labour Attack Resumed (N Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON. Nov. 28. Parliament tonight began a clause-by-clause examination of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill.

The Opposition resumed its criticism of the provision in the bill for making composite awards covering unions in a single undertaking or group of undertakings. Sir Basil Arthur (Opposition, Timaru) said the Opposition was predominantly concerned with the right given the Minister of Labour to approve an industry for the negotiating of a composite award.

If a company were prepared to approach its employees with the offer of the same protection that they were getting under various individual awards, he was sure they would wish to be a party to a composite agreement, he said.

Only a government unconcerned with industrial harmony would proceed with legislation which, might take away some of the hard-won conditions the workers had gained over the years. The Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) said it was not intended to force anyone into any new form of agreement.

Mr N. V. Douglas (Opposition, Auckland Central): They can be forced. Mr Shand: They can only be forced in the sense it is legally possible to force them. Unless the majority of the people concerned is of the will to make a composite agreement, it would be useless to' try to persuade them.

The House was still discussing the bill at midnight.