F.O.L. Accepts Draft Bill

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32392, 3 September 1970, Page 1

F.O.L. Accepts Draft Bill

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 2.

Proposed amendments to the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act were unanimously adopted by the national council of the Federation of Labour in Wellington today.

The president of the F.O.L. (Mr T. E. Skinner), said the council wanted only one or two minor administrative amendments to the draft legislation.

The draft studied by the F.O.L. today incorporated the points, raised at Monday’s meeting between the F.0.L., the Employers’ Federation and the Government. Mr Skinner declined to specify what the proposals were, but said they embodied most of the suggestions the F.O.L. had made to the Government on a revision of industrial law

The Employers’ Federation has still to consider the revised draft of the proposals, and it is believed that the Government caucus still has to approve them. These matters, as with the one or two amendments requested by the F.0.L., are expected to be mere formalities and the legislation is expected to be introduced in Parliament within a few weeks. The proposed amendment requiring freezing workers to kill stock on hand was not included in the draft considered today. This clause is to be the subject of a meeting between Federated Farmers, freezing companies and freezing unions tentatively arranged for Friday.

If agreement is reached the clause will be added to the other proposals. It is believed that these relate to five points—the amendment of section 162 of the act to allow awards to be varied during their currency, provi-

sions for a model disputes clause to be inserted into all awards, procedures for the settlement of personal grievances, the appointment of mediators for disputes, and the removal of the clause limiting unions to setting membership fees no higher than $10.40 and replacing this with a clause authorising them to set fees of up to 1 per cent of the basic weekly wage for each member.