EXCEPTION TAKEN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22427, 6 September 1947, Page 4

EXCEPTION TAKEN

M.P.’S REMARKS ADDITIONAL PENALTIES STRIKE LEGISLATION Strong exception to the remarks attributed to the district member, Mr. D. W. Coleman, in his address to the No. 3 Divisional Area Labour Party conference, relating to the penalty clauses of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill, was voiced by several delegates during a discussion on the latest decisions of the national council of the Federation of Labour in respect of this legislation. In answering delegates’ questions, the national councillor. Mr. Ed. Lindley, when presenting his report of the decisions of the national council meeting of August 27 and 28, 1947, outlined in detail each phase of the discussions between Mr. A. McLagan, Minister of Labour, and the national executive and notional council of the Federation of Labour during the initial stages of the bill. Talks on Contentious Clauses It was indicated that the national executive of the Federation of Labour was not aware of the contents of the draft copy of the measure until the morning of July 30. 1947, the same day as it went through its first and second readings in the House of Representatives. Further inquiries by the national executive of the Federation of Labour elicited the date of the sitting of the Labour Bills Committee and the national council was called together for the purpose of discussing the contentious clauses of the draft copy on August 5, 1947. Section 8 Opposed It was during this meeting of the national council of the Federation of Labour, it was stated, that strong exception was taken to section 8 and its sub-sections, and representations were made to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labour calling upon the Government to withdraw them. Chief objection io this section lay in the alleged excessively harsh penalties to be inflicted on trade union officials and to sub-clause 4 of the section, which placed the onus on a union official to prevent a strike even though he may have neither the time nor the opportunity to exercise any influence over the decision. “Minister Appreciates Injustice” “Mr. A. McLagan, Minister of Labour, recognised that these were reasonable and just representations and intimated that they would be given every consideration, and any inference that such additional penalties did not exist in the bill, which created the present dissatisfaction in the industrial movement, is not wholly correct,” concluded Mr. Lindley in rounding off the discussion relating to the district member’s remarks. , Following further lengthy discussion on the national councillor’s report, it was resolved to support the decision of the national council of the Federation of Labour in its approach to the amended bill now before the House of Representatives.