AMICABLE SPIRIT

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 272, 12 August 1932, Page 12

AMICABLE SPIRIT

Settlement of Dispute TRUE CONCILIATION Commissioner’s Easy Task NEW SAWMILLS’ AWARD Dominion Special Service. Christchurch, August 11. “This lias been quite the easiest task I have had during my term in this position,” remarked the Conciliation Commissioner. Mr. Ritchie, at file conclusion of the hearing of the Canterbury timberyards’, sawmills’ and coalyards’ employees’ industrial dispute in the Conciliation Council this morning. A complete agreement was reached during the morning, and an application will be made immediately for recognition of the agreement as an award. After a number of conferences between the employers and employees, only a small number of differences remained to be settled by the council. By arrangement the employees did not file any counter-claim to the demands of the employers. Mr. M. Flannery, one of the employees’ assessors, thanked the Commissioner for his efforts to bring about a settlement, and the employers’ assessors for the very conciliatory spirit in which they had approached the dispute. ' Mr. W. Goss, one of the employers’ assessors, thanked and congratulated the opposite side for the manner in which they had dealt with a very unpleasant task. The representatives of the workers, he said, always had a difficult task in such disputes. He was sorry that the circumstances were such as to make it necessary for the employers to ask for reduced wages, but the economic conditions obtaining precluded any other possibility. He hoped that next time an agreement was under consideration, the employers would be in a position to give an increase in wages. “This dispute has provided a very good illustration of true conciliation,” said Mr. Ritchie, after thanking the speakers for their remarks. . “Both sides recognised the fact that adjustments had to be mfi.de, and they have made them in a very fine spirit indeed. The first essential in business is relationship between 'employer and employee, and I am satisfied after hearing this dispute that when conditions do improve such steps will be taken as will be of benefit to both."