ANTI-SWEATING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 244, 8 July 1908, Page 7

ANTI-SWEATING.

• • WAGES'BOARDS. (Dr..TELEGRAPH—PBESS ASSOCIATION— COFI'RIGIIT.j London, July 6. The Anti-Sweating League 1 claims that since 1896 the increase in wages under the wages boards has been a million and a half. Sweating has been practically abolished in trades wliere the boards aro operative. THE CONCILIATION ACT, 1836; ; There are no statutory' Wages Boards at .Home, as in Victoria. Sir C(jas.- Dilke lias several times«introduced a Bill to establish suoh boards, but it' has not been passod. Sir Clias. Dilke's Bill proposes, as a remedy for sweating, to establish Wages. Boards for trades chosen by the Home Secretary, with power to fix the minimum rate of wages to bo paid to workers in particular trades. Timerate or piece-work-rate may be fixed. The boards would be composed of employers, and employees in equal numbers, the chairman to be appointed by the members or by the Home Secretary. .

- Probably the bodies referred to in the cablegram are those set up under the Conciliation (Trade Disputes) Act, 189 G. According to ".Hazell's Annual," the Act empowers the Board of Trade, "where a dispute had.arisen or was apprehended, (a) to inquire into the causes of the dispute, (b) to induce the parties to confer . together with a view to a friendly settlement, (c) to appoint a person to act as' conciliator at tlio request of either party, an,d (d) on the application of the parties ..to appoint an arbitrator. Provision is also made for the registration of pi'jvate bords of conciliation and arbitration, and the Board of Trade is authorised to take steps to secure the formation of such boards where none exist. The Board of Trade has no power to compel a settlement, and therefore, the Act has been made valueless in the case, of large and embittered disputes. Nevertheless, it has been successful in settling a number of minor quarrels. Prom August 189G to June 30, 1907, the Board dealt with 232 cases, of which 168 were settled under the Act."