NEED FOR CLARITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 133, 8 June 1939, Page 14

NEED FOR CLARITY

LANGUAGE OF

AWARDS

REFERENCE BY COURT

The necessity for industrial awards being set out in clear language was mentioned by the Court of Arbitration at the end of a lengthy opinion issued today on a case stated from Hamilton involving interpretation of certain clauses in the Taranaki Chemical, Manure, ?nd Acid Workers' Award.

'•Since it was passed in 1894 the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act has contained a provision imposing on the Court the obligation of setting out an award in clear language," the opinion stated. "Until 1908 industrial disputes were dealt with in the first instance by permanent boards of conciliation who framed their recommendations for an award, and, if those were accepted by the parties, they became the award. If not accepted, they were remitted to the Court, and the award as finally pronounced was framed in terms identical, or nearly so, with the original recommendations. In 1908 the boards of conciliation were abolished and were replaced by councils of conciliation.

"Naturally, this Court finds it very difficult to interfere Avith the phrasing of a council's recommendations, but, in the circumstances in which these are drawn, errors are very apt to be overlooked and hence disputes as to interpretation are much more frequent than was originally the case. We direct attention to this fact in the hope that councils of conciliation will be increasingly careful to avoid difficulties such as have arisen in the case be-

fore us."

Brought up from infancy in a monastery in Greece, a man has just died at the age of 82 without ever having seen a woman. Anything of the female sex. either human or animal, is banned from the place.