HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 22, 27 January 1942, Page 4

HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK?

The Minister of Labour announced last week that the Government had requested the Waterfront Commission to review the whole operations of the waterfront and report at the earliest date on the working of the co-operative contract system. It was agreed, he said, that the work and discipline had very greatly improved but many weaknesses still remained to be straightened out. Point is given to this request for a review by the Minister's conference with the Auckland waterside workers' executive. Mr. Webb said that if the figures which had been supplied to him were true, the watersiders of Auckland had not complied with their promise made to him on a previous occasion to give greater unity and cooperation. The men assured him that there had not been a hold-up on the waterfront for six months and many men worked the clock round and on Sundays and holidays in all weathers. The Minister gave credit to the great majority for playing their full part, but regretted to think there were a few who were not pulling their weight. Pending the result of the review that the Government has asked for, it is inadvisable to comment upon the matter, save to point out its public importance. A new system of operation has been instituted and a new form of control adopted. The cost of that system must rest upon industry, part of it directly through the administrative costs paid by the Government and part of it indirectly through the charges on goods passing inward and outward over the wharves. The success or failure of the system is therefore a matter of public interest. But there is another aspect that cannot be overlooked. Neither waterfront work nor any other activity in industry can be judged in detachment. Its conditions and its rewards must be considered in relation to the pay and conditions in other occupations. A correct judgment upon the co-operative contract and commissioner control system from this viewpoint should be made, not by the commission responsible for its operation, but by an investigating authority able to review the scheme in its relationship to other employment and industry. The commission may review operations now in order to discover and remove weaknesses hindering the speedier turnaround of shipping, but later the whole system should be subjected to a thorough and impartial examination by independent investigators.