ARBITRATION SYSTEM

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 99, 25 January 1928, Page 11

ARBITRATION SYSTEM

OPERATION IN NEW ZEALAND FAILED TO BRING PARTIES TOGETHER INDUSTRIAL PEACE NOT ESTABLISHED Professor Tocker, addressing the Victorian Chamber of Manufacturers, expressed the opinion that the system of compulsory arbitration in New Zealand had failed to do the things which it was created to do. By telegraph.—Press association. Copyright. Melbourne, January, 24. Explaining the (operation of the system of compulsory arbitration in New Zealand, Professor Tocker, of Canterbury College, in an address to the members of the Victorian Chamber of Manufacturers, expressed the opinion that Jdie system had failed to do the things which it was created to do. He advocated a return to collective bargaining between employers and employees. Industry in a young country should be flexible, and adjustments mutually satisfactory to employers and employees should be made to suit the conditions in particular branches of industry. “The Arbitration Court,” said Professor Tocker, “is a piece of legal machinery set up between parties in tfie industry which prevents them coming together and forces them both to organise for contention rather than for conciliation.” COURT DEVELOPED ALONG LINES NOT INTENDED. Professor Tocker said that in New Zealand compulsory arbitration was introduced thirty years ago, primarily with the object of ensuring industrial peace. In that it had failed, especially in recent years. From 1921 until this year strides' had become increasingly common. The Court hud developed along lines never intended, the effects of which were never fully considered. While the scope of the Court’s investigations was limited to conditions of only about one-fourth of the wage earners of the community, it made awards which were binding over a far larger field and had a profound influence on other industries. The minimum wage fixed by the Court became in almost every case the standard wage. No increases were provided for skill or for human variability. Payment by results was penalised and disputes were frequently created to give the Court work to do.

Industry was bound in a strait jacket, he added, which prevented experiments, decreased production, and increased costs. The burden arising out of the system ultimately fell upon the shoulders of the consumers and on the unsheltered primary industries.