WAGE REDUCTION

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 171, 16 April 1931, Page 8

WAGE REDUCTION

Move by Arbitration Court FIXING OF HEARING Having received yesterday the signature of the Governor-General, the recent Finance Act, which empowers the Arbitration Court to make an order for wage reductions under all awards and industrial agreements, has now become law, and it is probable that the Arbitration Court will fix either today or to-morrow a date for the hearing of a general application in Wellington. The court, which is at present at New Plymouth, is to proceed shortly to Dunedin, and it- is likely that it will return to Wellington before the middle of May, when the application for reduction may be heard. According to information available yesterday afternoon, the Court of Arbitration was waiting for official intimation that the Act had been signed by the Governor-General before fixing a date for the hearing in accordance with the application which will presumably reach it from the New Zealand Employers’ Federation. The date itself, perhaps May 12, should be fixed in the very near future, as delay has already taken place in the passage of the Bill, for which a special early session was called. Unions and other parties concerned will be notified of the fixture as soon as it is made and will thus have a month In which to prepare for the hearing. Through similarity between the provisions of the two Acts, the course to be followed will be the same as was followed under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act Amendment of 1922. Hearing of an application for a general order was begun on April 26 of that year, the judge having announced that all parties would have a right to be heard and that one general case covering all awards would take place at Wellington. This is what will happen next month, and advocates for any organisations concerned will be permitted to address the court.