INDUSTRIAL LAWS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 139, 17 June 1929, Page 10

INDUSTRIAL LAWS

AUSTRALIA'S TROUBLES "LEGISLATIVE INDIGESTION" »;.REAKDON-. RETUBNS "Australia seems to be suffering from, legislative indigestion" was the remark made to a "Post" reporter by Mr. M. J. Roardon, who returned to Wellington, by f the E. 11.5. Maunganui this morning after a seven months' stay in Sydney. "The industrial laws over there seem to have got into a state of hopelesi .chaos,"-he stated. "First you have the , Commonwealth Arbitration Court; thea in the State of New South Wales there is an Arbitration Couit and Wage* Boards as well. In Vicioria and in Tasmania there are Wages Boards; and there are State Arbitration Courts in ~ Queensland, South Australia, and West, em Australia. In addition to these tribunals, there are the Peti"->1 1,--*-*!-,. ture ana the sis. State' Legislatures, all " taking a hand in industrial legislation. The New South Wales Labour Govern- " ' merit recently passed a 44-Hours Act ' for all workers, but the Federal Court ot Appeal decided that that law should apply only to the workers who were under the State awards. The result was ' the extraordinary situation of bodies of men in the one workshop under the Commonwealth awards, which provide for a 48-hours' week, while others alongside them were working under State awards and governed by the 44-houra legislation of the New South Wales Parliament. The effect of that sort of thin? " it that throughout the States there is hopeless confusion.

STATE RIGHTS DIFFICULTY. ■ "An effort is now beingmade by the Federal Government to remedy-this state of affairs by abolishing the Federal Arbitration Court, But this brings ' "— up the question of Federal 'rights-v Statq rights; and, while' the question is purely one of whether the Federal Court should continue to function or iot there, is the much more important, issue - ;• or- whether the Commonwealth Parlia- v ■" ment should be paramount. As a conse- ■ -■ quence of the 44-hour legislation in New "^ South Wales, when the. Federal- Court ' - -; decreed that the law should not apply " "" to workers unde- the Federal awards,' : the New South Wales Parliament gay« ■■'■ the employees under Federal awardsithe '" 44-hour week. Recently the Railway -' - Commissioners, who were ostensibly sefc : •'" up to control the railways independently of political interference, proposed to revert to the Federal award, but were- restrained from doing so by the pledge made by the Bavin Government during the election, in which they stated that they would not revert to 48 hours.THE FREE SATURDAY. "Unfortunately, Labour has abandon- • ed its 8-hour principles, after havinjr ' erected monuments to the movement itt memory of the 8-hours' day, and has " ': adopted-a longer working-day in--order ' : to have a full free Saturday. Tie effect ot this has been that office staffs have 'had to be granted the whole Saturday off as well, with the result that a'jrerr ; large proportion «f the railway service,' for instance, is now only working: 35' , hours a week. These anomalies, of J' course, arc responsible for a good'deal of labour unrest in.-Australia. . ' : THE COAL TROUBLE. "The coal situation there, however i» .purely a matter "of markets. It is-the same difficulty that they have had ia England; and the same as they'are experiencing- in America.-: And,' while the employers are claiming that if • there was a reduction in wages there would be a possibility of markets, it isdoubtfot whether Australia would be different ' trom other countries in that respect. ■ 'The timber workers' affair is of ■■' '~ minor importance except that the whole labour movement can see that thisis ': the first, attack on the 44-hour week. ' ' For that reason the affair has beeii J given very wide importance in the eyes of the industrial workers in Australia."