No compromise on union fines

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32588, 23 April 1971, Page 9

No compromise on union fines

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) MELBOURNE, April 22. A National Labour Advisory Council meeting in Melbourne has failed to avoid a major confrontation between the Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Government and employers.

The 14-hour Labour Council session, which ended early yesterday was held to try to find a compromise on the penal powers of the Arbitration Act. Unions affiliated with the A.C.T.U. Australia’s most powerful union body, have refused to pay $48,150 in fines imposed for illegal strike action.

Observers said that the meeting was the most critical for industrial relations since the 1949-1950 era,

noted for prolific strike action by Australian unions. “The collection of the fines is still a decision for the Government, and nothing has happened tonight which means the Government will not try to collect the fines,” said the Federal Treasurer (Mr Billy Snedden) chairman of the meeting, after the long session. However, discussion should continue on their collection, he said. The A.C.T.U. had demanded that the Government waive the fines. The Government and employers have said industrial anarchy would result if the penal powers were not enforced.

Unionists say that they are a basic restriction on their only industrial weapon—their right to strike. The A.C.T.U. president, Mr Bob Hawke, told the council meeting that at least $4OOO of the fines had been invalidly imposed and would probably be the subject of a challenge in the High Court. Employer representatives at the meeting agreed however, to consider the A.C.T.U.’s suggestion for a system of voluntary contracts between

employers and unions, including provisions for their legal enforcement.

Such agreements would work outside the Arbitration Act and might avoid industrial strikes caused by the Government-imposed penal clauses.

Union officials said after the meeting that it was unlikely the Government would try to collect the fines and risk industrial unrest while discussions between the Government, the A.C.T.U. and the employers continued. Soon after the meeting started, about 200

union delegates attempted to enter the board room of the Department of Labour and National Service in Melbourne where the negotiations were held.

A departmental officer locked them out but the unionists chanted: “Don’t sell out . . . Don’t pay fines.”

A copy of a resolution passed earlier by 600 union delegates was slipped beneath a locked door.

It declared that there should be no compromise by the A.C.T.U. on the penal sanctions.