ASSESSORS' FEES

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 29, 3 August 1923, Page 8

ASSESSORS' FEES

IN CONCILIATION PROCEEDINGS.

One of the matters dealt with by the Wellington. Trades and - Labour Council last evening was the question of the payment of union assessors' expenses in conciliation proceedings, which question was the other day brought before the notice of the House of Representatives by Mr. K. M'Keen, • M.P., and which was brought up at the meeting last evening by .a request from the Shop Assistants' Union that the council should support it in urging upon the Government that the expenses of one assessor should be paid by the Government. The council agreed to lend their support to the representations made by the union, and a letter has been forwarded on from the council to the Minister of Labour to that effect.

■_ The consensus of opinion at the meeting was that small unions, particularly those in country towns, should receive some assistance, and there was a sound enough reason why country unions did not always feel that a local assessor could serve them best, that a --3sident in a small town was not able te argue with his employers on contentious points as those points should be argued for reasons of diffidence or other reasons more directly affecting his employment. It is recognised by the Trades Council, as stated in the letter forwarded to the Minister that certain unions in the past abused the privileges granted them when the Government paid the fees and expenses of all assessors, but the proposal that the expenses of one assessor should be paid they consider reasonable and equitable.