PARTY TO AWARDS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 December 1924, Page 5

PARTY TO AWARDS.

ARMSTRONG, WHITWORTH CASE.

(by; telegraph—pbjhjs association. (' / AUCKLAND, Dee. 22. , Judgment was given in the Arbitration Court tq-day in, the ease where applications were, made by four trade unions to have Armstrong, Whitworth and Co., contractors for,’-the Arapuni hydro-electric works, added, to various awards. ' '

' The Court ordered -that the company should,: be added as a party to each of the awards. . It was, however, to he bound only by those provisions of the awards prescribing rates of wages.. The company was exempted from all the other provisions,' if, and so long as, it should in respect of all conditions of employment and other matters, contract with; its workers on terms no less favourable to the workers than those contained in the industrial agreement made between the company and the New Zealand Workers’ Union. In a memorandum the Court stated that the company opposed the application on the ground that the Public Contracts Act ousted the jurisdiction of the court. The court was of the opinion, however, that the Act added to, raher than subtracted from the obligations imposed by court awards. The 'agreement between the company and the New Zealand Workers’ U,nion was defective in law, but the -conditions were'approved by the employees. \ } The main objection of. the craft unions to that agreement, in so far as the merits are concerned, was that it provided for a 47-liour week. The*'men, however, were engaged on work in’ isolated settlements, and it lias often been provided by the court, in awards fixing an eight-hour day and, a 44-hour week, that men engaged oil country work might*' agree with their employers to work different hours without payment of overtime rates. In the present ease the men wished to work a 47-hour week, and the conditions of employment were favourable to them. That did not involve any departure from the general principle of a 44-liour week for craftsmen, and, as had been, already mentioned, there was a precedent for special latitude in cases where the conditions of employment were unusual. -A-ii important factor was the desire of the men to work on the‘co-operative system, and that was not provided for in the craft awards, which in many other, respects did not make provision for the class of work carried on by the company.

The effect of the present order was to make award rates of wages binding on the company, while leaving it free to contract with its workers .in regard to other matters, subject only to the conditions agreed upon .being not less favourable to the workers than those now observed. The court was prepared to make similar orders in regard to any other awards to which the company might subsequently become automatically a party. ■ r The unions concerned are the Auckland Amalgamated Engineering, Boilermakers Carpenters,’ and .Joiners’, and the Builders’ and Contractors’ Labourers’ Unions.