LEGISTATION FOR WORKERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8149, 24 November 1905, Page 4

LEGISTATION FOR WORKERS.

That unionism, despite all that is claimed for it, has its hardships1 was clearly demonstrated at the'Arbitration Court yesterday, when a .Feilding painter was convicted of a lireach of the Painters' Award for paying less than the specified award. Briefly, the circumstances were that three admittedly incompetent men, none of them painters, applied to the firm in question for work. They were taken on at a wage with which they were perfectly satisfied, and were at once placed above want. Everything went well till someone with more regard for the claims of unionism than the daily necessities of a man and his wife and children, drew attention to the breach that had taken place. The firm, immediately their attention was drawn to the matter, raised the wages of two of the men to the required standard, but dismissed the third, who, apparently, was quite impossible at the wages that would have to be paid him. Not content with securing the desired payment to the two painters kept in employment, the • Union tobk action, though aware of the circumstances of the case, and the employer was fined £3 for doing a good turn to men wh) were badly in need of employment, and, greatest farce of all, the men were each fined os for preferring to do honest work to starving. There could have been no more eloquent and appealing statement than the reply of one of the men when asked by the Court if he was not aware he was committing a breach. " What was I to do, sir ? Work or starve ?". Of course the Court pointed out certificates of incompetency could have been obtained by the firm, but, as counsel for the defence stated, firms in small country towns are not aware of the intricacies of the award, and consequently they were fined for their want of knowledge and a praiseworthy action in doiDg a kindness to deserving men.