AN AWKWARD POSITION

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLI, Issue XLI, 10 September 1921, Page 7

AN AWKWARD POSITION

LABOUR OPINION DIVIDED

(uv telegraph—prkss association.) WELLINGTON. Sept. 9. Mr. MV J. Reardorij who has been temporarily summoned to fill the position of the workers' representative on the Arbitration Court bench pending the appointment of a member in the place of Mr. J. A. McCullough. has, it is said, been placed in an awkward position by the resolution passed by the Alliance of Labour recommending him not to fill the vacancy.

From inquiries mudo in Labour circles it is apparent that opinion is divided upon the question as to whether Labour should recognise the Arbitration Cottrt as a legal medium through which industrial disputes may bo settled. In some official quarters it is maintained that tho Alliance of Labour, which claims to represent tho majority of the employees that the Arbitration Court should not bo recognised. He had been summoned to appear as the workers' deputy at tho Auckland nittings of the Court next week, and lie therefore had only a few days in which to arrive at a decision.

The Alliance of .Labour has recommended organised Labour not to nominate another person ns workers' representative in the Arbitration Court If this recommendation is adopted by the industrial bodies, it is understood the Government can still appoint a representative to fill the vacancy Mr. McOiillough's resignation, as a result of a difference of on-Jifbn in regard to a reduction of the wages of shearers and shed hands, has aroused wide interest, not alone in Labour circles. The development has given rise to the argument as to whether the personnel of the three members of "the Court is most satisfactory The contention that the judge alone should adjudicato upon differences that arise between employer and employee m the fixation of wages and general working conditions is voiced by not a few.