EMPLOYERS' PROBLEMS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 92, 15 October 1926, Page 6

EMPLOYERS' PROBLEMS

ARBITRATION COURT AWARDS

OUT OF DATE AND IRKSOME.

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.) . CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. A criticism that the methods of the Arbitration Court were obsolete, and that the employers should not be called to the Court to prove the interpretation of clauses in awards, was voiced by Mr. H. Dearsley, acting president of the Auckland Provincial Industrial Association, at "the annual conference of the Neiv Zealand Manufacturers' Federation last night.

"I do not oppose the Arbitration Court, for lit has greatly improved the old order of strikes and lock-outs," said Mr. Dearsley. Tho Court has been in existenco for thirty or forty years, and still makes aivards on lines ivhich Avorc all right twenty or thirty years ago, but which to my mind are noAV out of date, especially with regard to labour. Employers are hedged about Avith the Factories Act and Arbitration Court aAvards, and there are so many regulations that the fear of breaking some of them is a real one."

Tho trade unions ivcre persistent in their attempt to stifle progress, in con-, trast to some" manufacturers Avho Avere trying to improve the relations between employer and employee by making ivages" and working conditions better than those specified in the awards. Most employers ivere trying to eliminate all Avaste of time and material. In some firni3 friction was a. very small item, while jin others it ivas common. Tho doing aivay of friction v/as to increase efficiency by 10 per cent. The limitation of the proportion of apprentices to journeymen ivas keeping many boys out of employment. The speaker was connected lvith the technical school in Auckland, and kncAv there were many boys of education Avho were debarred from entering an industry. The employers did not AA-ish to revert, to the days Avhen trades were worked almost solely by apprentices, while men walked in the streets, but some more reasonable arrangement was necessary.