Arbitration Court Held Up By President’s Illness

Northern Advocate, 10 May 1939, Page 11

Arbitration Court Held Up By President’s Illness

r per Frees Association. Copyright. 1 AUCKLAND. This Day.

The delay to the operations of the Arbitration Court as the result of the illness of the president, Mr Justice O’Regan, is causing considerable dissatisfaction to be expressed by unionists in Auckland, and no doubt in i other parts of the Dominion, j It is pointed out that not only are 1 disputes awaiting hearing by the | court being held up, but little, if any. 1 progress can be made In conciliation | with disputes owing to employers bej ing disinclined to agree to any varia- ’ tion in wages until such time as the ! court has given its decision in the labourers’ cases, as the wages fixed in these are generally accepted as the ; basic rate, j There is a distinct feeling that the Government should act, and act 1 quickly, in the direction of finding a 'substitute for Mr Justice O’Regan 'during his period of incapacity. Some 1 would not object to the temporary apI pointment of a younger man, if this | would tend to speed up the work of Jthe court, while others again suggest | that Mr Justice Blair might be transferred in the meantime from the Supreme Court to the Arbitration J Court bench, as he has had previous ! experience in the industrial field.