TROUBLES OF TRADE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1142, 1 June 1911, Page 6

TROUBLES OF TRADE.

4 LABOUR LAWS. I CONFUSION WORSE CONFOUNDED. HARASSED EMPLOYEES. (By Telegraph-Special CorreSDondenU Christchurch, May 31. There is a growing feeling among Christchurch employers that awards of the Arbitration Court should deal praclically exclusively with the broad principles involved in disputes between employers and employees. The practice has been to make awards which enter into an extraordinary amount of detail, and it is argued that the Arbitration Court, rather (nan the employer, manages many of Hie industries and businesses of the country. Employers generally do not object to the Arbitration Court fixing the number of hours to be worked, the proportion' of apprentices, the minimum wages to be paid, and the holidays to be observed. It is recognised that the Court should protect tho worker against the sweater, but many employers claim that the management of their business is seriously interfered with by the comprehensive detail of the awards which they are compelled to observe. A representative of tho "Press" was informed that the greatest inconvenience was experienced in large and moderatesized establishments, which were working under several awards. Sometimes -there was not uniformity in the hours to be worked per week, or in the holidays to be observed during the year. There were many detail conditions in every, award, and employers found it exceedingly difficult, if not altogether impossible, to avoid "committing a breach." There was an astonishing variety of preferential clauses. ' One employer had counted up no fewer than three dozen, and lie had not completed the tally then. The position was further complicated in establishments where females as well as males were employed, as- the employer then had the clauses of the Factories Act to observe in addition. A caso in which the industrial activity of a small shopkeeper was abruptly reduced through the operation of restrictive labour laws came under the notice Of -the reporter. The shopkeeper opened a small refreshment room as an adjunct to his confectionery establishment, and engaged a girl to attend to it.- Ho w"s informed that the wa trass must no do any. "washing up," and that the girl in tho shop must not do any waiting. The amount of labour required to run what was really a small concern made the venture nn unpayable one, and the result was that the refreshment room had to be closed down. La«t session's Shops and Offices Amendment Act came along to make confusion worse confounded. It fixed tho maximum number of hours to bo worked in various retail shops at 52, but there were several awards of the Arbitration Court in force which fixed a higher number of hours in particular industries. Tho 52hour limit will come-in as tho awards expire. , A question has arisen whether the Arbitration Court renewed the butchers award when it declined to alter tho old award. The old award stipulated for 5G hours, but the butchers cannot find out whether it was renewed for a further term or not. The proper method to secure an interpretation is for a request signed by master.butchers and the union to bo sent to the Arbitration Court., As the employees arc in the meantime working only 52 hours, they arc quite content to remain in that position, and tho union will not sign the request for an interpretation. At the recent sittings of the Court in Christchurch, .His Honour Mr. Justice Sim advised the master butchers to act on the award, and challenge the Labour Department to take action. This course, it is understood, is now being * taken by one master butcher, and no doubt proceedings will follow.