CLERICAL AWARD APPEAL CASE

Evening Star, Issue 22688, 30 June 1937, Page 18

CLERICAL AWARD APPEAL CASE

SUBMISSIONS (3F DEFENDANT^ " % CLERK'S VOCATION IS AH INDUSTRY [Per United Press Association.] WELLINGTON, June 29. Coiitiiuiing the argument in the case of the Otago and Southland Stock and Station Agents’ Clerical Employees’ Trade Union, which is asking the Court of Appeal to quash the Otago clerical workers’ award and declare that union invalid, Air J. C. Mowat (Dunedin) made the following submissions on behalf of the plaintiffs : “’(1) That the refusal of the registrar to register the plaintiff union or society as an industrial union, on the ground that its mem hers could belong to the defendant union, was illegal and in excess of his jurisdiction. (2) That the plaintiff society was entitled to a writ of mandamus commanding the registrar to register the society as an industrial union, and not merely directing him to consider its application.

Counsel held that if the contention on behalf of the plaintiffs, that the defendant union was an invalid body and ought therefore to be quashed, was correct, the plaintiff society could not be refused registration for the reason given by the registrar. In any event, at the time the refusal was made there was not any existing industrial union to which members of the plaintiff society could belong. Presentation of argument on behalf of the defendants was commenced by Air H. E. O’Leary, K.C., who said that he would not refer to certain historical and other matters mentioned by counsel for the plaintiffs to create an atmosphere of prejudice against the defendant union. He submitted the following points:— (1) That the defendant union was a properly registered union under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Art. , . , (2) There was a dispute which was an industrial dispute, and to that dispute there were the requisite parties to give jurisdiction to the Court of Arbitration. The award of March 10, 1937. was a valid award. (3) In respect to section 6 of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, the registrar of industrial unions was given power to inquire whether the applicant society was one qualified to be registered. Counsel said that, however inconclusive the registrar’s findings might be, clerical work was an industry. It was urged that a certificate as to registration endowed a union with the status of an industrial union under the Act.

(4) That acceptance of submission (3) met the allegations made by the plaintiffs in the statement of claim—viz., that the award was a nullity and made without jurisdiction, and established that the award was_ made be-' tween a valid industrial union on the one side and the employers on the other.

(5) Determination of what was an industry for all purposes relative to the Act was a matter which the Legislature had left entirely to the decision of the Arbitration Court, and section 97 afforded protection against any allegedly erroneous finding of the court. It was contended that the Act recognised and provided for what were termed craft or vocational unions, in addition to unions in respect of enterprises in which the employer and the employee were associated. This in turn depended on the meaning of an “ industry ” as defined in the Act. Did “an industry ” mean, or was it referable solely to, an enterprise in which employers and employees were associated or engaged, or did it mean also the vocation of persons doing a particular kind of work in connection with several different classes of such enterprises? The defendants’ case was that it covered both meanings. The case was adjourned.