AIMS NOT REALISED

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 24 January 1928, Page 9

AIMS NOT REALISED

COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.

NEW ZEALAND’S SYSTEM. BURDEN TO COMMUNITY. BY CABLE—PfiESS ASSOCIATION—COPYBIGHT Received 1.10 p.in. to-day. SYDNEY, Jan. 24. Explaining the systems of compulsory arbitration in New Zealand, Professor Tocker, of Canterbury College, in an address to- members of tlie Victorian Chamber of Manufacturers, expressed the opinion that the system had failed to do- the things which it was created to- do. He advocated a return to collective bargaining between employers and employees. Industry in a young country should be flexible- and adjustments mutually satisfactory to employers and employees. “It should be made to suit the conditions in the particular branches of industry,”, continued Professor Tocker. “The Arbitration - Court is- a piece of legal machinery set up between parties in ifn industry which prevents their coming together and forces them both to organise for contention rather than for conciliation.”

Professor Tocker said that, in New Zealand, compulsory arbitration was introduced thirty years ago, primarily with the object of ensuring industrial: peace. In that it had failed, especially in recent years from- 1921, until _ this year strikes had become increasingly common. The Court had developed along lines never intended and its effects had never been fully considered while the scope of the court’s investigations was limited to the conditions of only about one fourth the- wage earners of the community. It -made awards w'hich were binding over a far larger field and it had a, - profound influence on other industries.

The minimum wage fixed by the court became, in almost every case, the standard wage. No increases were provided for skill or productivity and no allowance was made- for human variability. Disputes were frequently created to give the court work to do. Industry was bound in a straight jacket which, -prevented experiments and decreasing production and increased costs- constituted -the burden arising out of the system. This ultimately fell upon the shoulders of consumers and on the unsheltered primary industries.

DUNEDIN QUERY. INCREASED WAGES CLAIMS. DUNEDIN, Jan. 24. “I want the Court to justify itself to the public as to why local bodies should have to pay 66 2-3 per cent, increase in wages since 1914 -and private employers only 61 per cent. It is driving us to private contracts,” said Mr Dewin, town clerk, when telling the Conciliation Council thiis morning that the claims of labourers employed in the Dunedin Local Bodies would be strenuously opposed. The claims of various classes of labour ranged from l,s lid par hour to 2s 3d-

Mr Lewin stated that Is lOd fully covered the- increased oast of living, and, taking the actual figures the- demand, worked out at 66 2-3 per cent, increase.