ABBITRATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Evening Star, Issue 11666, 28 September 1901, Page 3

ABBITRATION IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Attorney-General W v ise recently addressed a large meeting hold- under'the. auspices of the Railway and Tramway Service Association at: Sydney on" the pro visions of the Arbitration Bill. In the conrse of his address he saidi Under'the measure any trades union could register as an industrial union, but an industrial union could be a body of either employers or employes. But a body of employes could not register as an industrial union' unless they had been previously registered as a trades union or as a branch of [ a trades union, and he would limit the latter ' to those branches whoso head offices were outside the State. In that respect the Bill was an improvement on the New Zealand Act. It was to the public interest that every workman should belong to a trades union, and every employer should belong to an employers' union, ant they could not have compnlsory unionism. In New Zealand any seven persons who gathered to-

getaer coma register as an industrial union, and bring jthe Act into operation. That was unfair| to the employer. Here that power was limited to trades unions, and if that clause were altered he would not be prepared bo go on with Hhe Bill. Mr Seddon had said that the measure in New Zealand was being ridden to death by bands of seven irresponsible persons who began trade disputes. Mr Spence, MJLA., had also spoken- of them as "seven irresponsiblo nuisances." Under that state of affairs an unscrupulous employer could pay seven employes to harass a competitor. The chief safeguard of his measure was that it could only be put into operation by responsible persons. He wished that the Bill did compel every workman to be a unionist, os some of its critics said it would, but its benefits were limited to trades unionists. Before a trades union could be registered as an industrial union it would have to. alter its rules so as to make it clear, first, that its members are financial, or if not they might be turned out: secondly, that its accounts are properly kept, that it has a pro-perly-qualified auditor, and that the result of the audit should be made public; and, further, that the union should provide reasonable facilities for every employe in that trade to become a member of the union. Those provisions would greatly improve the status of unions. Disputes often arose through the occurrence of new conditions, which had not been foreseen when a compact was entered into, and it was most important that there should be a tribunal to determine such disputes. Sometimes it was more important that a dispute should bo settled quickly than that it should be settled rightly. The disputes that would come before jhe Court would be of two kinds. There might be disputes which would arise upon tho interpretation of an agreement But in many trades there was no signed agreement between the employers and the workmen, and there the dispute might be as to what should be the conditions of employment for the future. He believed that before the measure had been in operation many years there would be very few trades in which there was no agreement, for every facility was given for agreements being mad« between a union of employers and a union of employes. Workmen could only bring a dispute before the' Court through their union, whose members must first of all discuss the matter. It had 'been suggested that a majority of members of the union should be in favor of the reference of any dispute to the Court. He did not care about inserting such a provision, but he hoped it would be put into the Bill, because it would greatly assist its passage through the Legislative Council. The present dilficulty was that the parties to a dispute could not be brought together, but the public had an interest in those disputes as well as the two parties. The Bill was an interference with freedom of contract, and it was intended to bel It was an assertion the community of its right to put an end to private war. It was an assertion by the conrrannity that at this time a strike'or a lock-out was as anomalous and as injurious to* the community as were the old private wars in the Middle Ages between two great barons. The growth of civilisation had insisted that there should be no private warfare, but that warfare should alone be between communities, and contested according to rules of civilised warfare. The Ccrart would be composed, say, of a Supreme Court Judge, a judge representing the employes, and .another tho employers. They would hold office for three years, with the same independence of public criticism as the Supreme Court Judges had. They would be paid for their services, and a resolution of both House of Parliament would bo necessary to remove them. If the Court wished it could send any dispute for arbitration to a committee of tho Board of Reference, which latter body would include a delegate from each union. The chief difficulty in enforcing an award would be in cases where there was no agreement, but so far as tho conditions of the employment were concerned the rules declared by the Court could be as easily enforced as the regulations under the Factories Act. Tho Court would be enabled to inflict a fine not exceeding £SOO on a union, arid £5 on each member of that union. Further, he intended to provide that if a union of cither employers or employes disobeyed an order of the Court its registration might be cancelled, and any member disobeying an order might be expelled from his union. That provision would probably in time be most effective hi enforcing any award.