ARBITRATION COURT

Grey River Argus, 20 May 1944, Page 2

ARBITRATION COURT

RESTORATION O" 1-UI..L POWER SOUGHT. P.A. AUCKLAND, May 19. A decision to ask the Government to restore the full' powers of the Arbitration -Court was reached at a meting of the Auckland Trades Council, last night, and the National Executive of the Federation of Labour is to be urged to take up the .matter with the Government. Since stabilisation began the Court has lost almost all powers for dealing with disputes, said the Council President (Mr. F. Craig), this morning, in commenting that dec.sions made in Conciliation Council could not be ratified by the Court if they in any way infringed the Stabilisation Regulations, as everything agreed on seemed to be contrary to the Regulations. In consequence the Court, for practical purposes, had ceased to exist. The workers felt thev were left without an independent judicial tribunal where they could state their case for increases of remuneration and improvements in conditions they considered due to them in view of the increased cost of living, which no workers accepted at the official figure of 13 per cent, increase since the commencement of the war. Instead of being determined by arbitration, workers’ conditions and wages were now controlled bv the Stabilisation Regulations and by the Wages Commissioner appointed by the Government.

When the present Government entered office one of the main planks, said Mr. Craig, was the restoration of the workers’ right to go to arbitration to settle disputes.