LABOUR INTENTION

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 257, 28 July 1939, Page 11

LABOUR INTENTION

Dealing- With Disputes In Industry CHANGES PROJECTED Improvement Of Existing Mechanism A further indication that the Government has under consideration proposals for the improvement of the existing mechanism for dealing with industrial disputes was given by the Minister of Justice, Mr. Mason, when replying yesterday to representations made to him by a deputation from the national council of the New Zealand Labourers’ Federation in connexion with the builders’ and general labourers’ award and the functioning of the Court of Arbitration.

The Minister said he quite understood the importance that attached to the points that had been raised and the necessity of having the judicial machinery for dealing with disputes as good as it could be made. The Government had been considering whether it should not try to effect an improvement in the present machinery. For one thing, the work had grown so much that it was an impossibility for the Court as at present constituted to cope with it. That raised the question of whether there should not be a change and of what change should be made.

Need For Improvement.

“I thoroughly agree with the principles which underlie the existing arbitration system,” said Mr. Mason. “However, it is getting old now and the admiration one has for those who introduced it should not turn into mere ancestor worship and prohibit modification. The Government is concerned about the need for some improvement in the mechanism. It is easier to say that than to say exactly what ought to be done, because the question needs some constructive thought. We will use our best endeavours to devise means of effecting improvements.” Mr. Mason, referring to the question of workers and strikes, said that strikes might be instituted under great provocation, but he could not agree with the proposition that the existence of a strike showed that provocation was great. It was known that loyalty among workers might cause a strike to spread where the original reason for it was microscopic. “The proposition that every strike justifies itself caunot be admitted for a moment,” Mr. Mason said.

The Minister indicated that he was not going to comment at all on the particular case which had been mentioned, the labourers’ award. The question of whether or not something.in the nature of an appeal from decisions of the Court should be brought into the system was quite interesting and would be considered by the Government in trying to devise some improvement in the existing system. He said he agreed very strongly that it was very important that there should be consistency as between awards, and that they should be harmonious one with the other.

Newspaper Comment.

Commenting on allegations by the secretary of the federation, Mr. P. M. Butler, of the apparent impunity with which sections of the Press and others could comment prejudicially on matters before the Court of Arbitration, the Minister said that he would have that matter looked into. He would also look into a complaint by Mr. Butler regarding the alleged Intimidation of one witness who gave evidence for the union before the Court. “As to the general question of the industrial machinery,” said Mr. Mason, "the great respect I have for the Initiators of the Court 40 years ago makes me one of the keenest to see that that, mechanism is improved. Ido not think we would be worthy of our predecessors of 40 years ago if we accepted the position as the summit of perfection. I am in good hopes that we shall manage to effect an improvement. I am not, one to make large promises or big boosts. We will just try to make some improvement in the mechanism.”