UNION REGISTRATION

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 197, 18 May 1936, Page 10

UNION REGISTRATION

Stock and Station Agent Clerical Workers CHALLENGE TO BE MADE “The Trade Union Act of 1908, which has been used to establish a company union of some clerical workers employed by stock ami station agents does not give the right to make enforceable agreements,” stated an official of the Clerical Workers’ Union in au interview on the information about Lite formation of tile Wellington Stock ami Station Agents Clerical Employees’ Trade Union, published In "The Dommiuiou” on .Saturday, The registration of (be union is to be challenged. “No agreement is binding, nor cau it be enforced under the Trades Union Act,” he said. “There are no penalties for breaches of an agreement nor can any legal proceedings be entertained to enforce any agreement made. Those responsible for the information published regarding the binding power of agreements' made under Ibis law are merely whistling to keep up their cour°“Thc Trades Union Act merely provides machinery for co-ordinating a group of workers or employers as legal entities, much in the same manner as a society incorporated under the Friendly Societies Act. It does not go any farther. It allows such a body to enter into lawful agreements, but docs not provide machinery for enforcing them. Registration to be Challenged. “The Clerical AA’orkers' Union thinks that the Stock ami Station Agents Union was formed to prevent the proper and effective organisation of clerical workers as a whole, and it intends to challenge the registration under the section of the Trades Union Act, which provides that the registrar can cancel any registration ‘on proof to bls satisfaction that the certificate has been obtained by fraud or mistake.’” REGISTERING UNIONS Ministerial Explanation Intricate points in flic industrial legislation now before Parliament, were referred to on Saturday by the Minister of Labour, Hon. H. T. Armstrong, in an interview. “The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill, as introduced. contained a provision that after the passing of the Bill no new industrial union would be registered if there was in the same industrial district <hi existing registered industrial union or trade union to which members of the applicant society could properly belong. There was a proviso for exception to be made if the existing industrial union or trade union concurred in the new union being granted registration. “At a. later stage of the Bill this clause was altered in two respects after consideration of information received. The power of concurrence in the registration of a new union was transferred from the existing-union to the Minister; and the reference in this connection to trade unions was restricted to trade unions registered as such before May 1, 1930. A similar restriction to recognition of trade unions registered before May 1, 1930, was inserted also in the compulsory unionism clause. "Correspondence being received by me indicates that confusion has arisen, possibly because published explanations of the amendment have not sufficiently emphasised, first, the difference between industrial unions and trade unions, and second, that the reference to May 1, 1936, applies only to trade unions. “Trade unions are not registered by the Department of Labour, but by the Friendly Societies Department. Provision for them to have recognition was inserted in the first place only to ensure that those which had been in existence for a considerable time should be assured recognition, but it was found during the passage of the Bill that many new organisations were applying for registration under the Trade Unions Act. with the obvious intention of evading the compulsory unionism provisions of the Bill. In order to counter this, but yet to preserve the original intention of granting recognition to previously-existing trade unions, the restrictive date of May 1, 1936. was inserted. The main purpose of this explanation is therefore to make it clear that the reference to May 1, 1936. in the Bill has no application whatever to industrial unions registered under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Bill.”