GENERAL LABOURERS.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 805, 30 April 1910, Page 7

GENERAL LABOURERS.

COMPLAINTS AGAINST MS. W. ;■•." ; , SCOTT. ■; -(By TelccraDh.—Press Association.! •''■..-."'■ Dunedln, April 29. The. General Labourers' ; .Union has decided to bring under the notice of the' Minister for Labour a- complaint to tho effect that 'Mr. W.', Scott, employers' representative on the Arbitration Court recently advised employers to resist the demands of the union. The union is of opinion that Mr! Scott has violated section 73 of the Arbitration Act by advising "that some of the union's demands were unfair.".; . When spoken to .with v reference to tho matter, Mr. Scott .said that, when ho was approached by the City Council, ho stated distinctly that he could not attend a proposed conference or take any part, in sucha thing. AH, he could do was to give information s.s to what the Court had,done in other centres. Ho forwarded a copy of the latest awards in, the north dealing with general labourers, and recommended that, if they held a conference with, the workers, they.should tak«:etho'v'.-latest awards as a basis of settlement. -He said that if this werefdorie, he did not thihk (providing the. thing was approached in reasonable: spirit by both sides) that there would be any necessity for tho case to come beforo the Court. So far as the words "fair" and "unfair" were concerned in connection •with the demands, he never made use of them. . Mr. Scott also' states that, in forwarding the copies.' of tho northern award, Tie stated that, in his opinion; the General Labourers' Union had a just grievance, and that '.labourers were not in as good a position as were their fellow workers in the north: ' His report was, he asserts, more in favour of workers than employers.