EMPLOYERS' LABOUR BUREAU. Wellington Trades Council Dubious.

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 399, 22 February 1908, Page 6

EMPLOYERS' LABOUR BUREAU. Wellington Trades Council Dubious.

THE Wellington Trades and Labour Council moves with admirable caution in all matters of vital concern to its interests No one can condemn caution of a reasonable value, but various branches of the Trades and Labour Council in New Zealand have fallen into error befoie now by reason of over-cautious-ness. As an instance of this we need only refer to the ludicrous attitude of the Canterbury Council on the subject of the immigration policy of the Government. Of course, everyone admits that the resolution of that body was prompted by a desire to conserve the inteiests of the workeis But it must just as readily be conceded that the lesolution and attitude of the Council on the immigiation question was childish and ridiculous. And now the Wellington Tiades and Labour Council appeal to be jeopardising their own interests in another connection. Last week the Council met to consider a proposal of the Wellington Employers' Association to establish a labour bureau of their own A ciicular letter from the Employeis' Association set out in detail the aims and objects of the proposed bureau, and from this circular letter it is not at all clear what reasonable objection can be urged against the Employers' proposition. Yet the Wellington Trades Council are suspicious of the movement, and have stated their disapproval of the scheme. The matter has been left to the careful consideration of the

Council's executive, and we shall" probably hear a good deal more of it. On a quiet consideration of the employei's proposals it would appear that there is a general desire to meet employees in every conceivable way. The whole spirit of the proposal seems to be to obviate anything in the nature of strained relationshipsbetween the parties, and the safeguarding of each others interests. If this be so, it is a pity that a friend should be treated as an outlaw and an enemy The Association proposes that an index of workers shall be kept, with records of their capabilities and characters, and that the employment of any individual shall depend upon the nature of a certificate to be given him by the employer whom he has served last. It is proposed to make the bureau free to workers so that whilst the nature of the institution would depend upon the use made of it by the employees, the expense involved being nil, it might easily become most serviceable as a means of communication between employer and employee. Prom the attitude of the Trades Council towards the proposal it would appear that they regard it as a ruse on the part of the employers to ' defeat the ends of organised labour." One delegate made a particular point of his belief that the proposal was intended to secure for employers, by means of the bureau, as far as possible, immunity from prosecutions for breaches of the preference clauses of the various awards of the Arbitration Court. But this suggestion was unwarranted in the face of the circular, which went on to state carefully that the intention was that the secretary of the bureau would have to see that all award conditions were complied with before recommending a worker for engagement. It is absurd to suggest that the rights of unionists under the preference clause of an award can be infringed by the establishment of the bureau. The secretaiy, acting for any employer who requires a worker,. will have to consult the "employment book" of the union concerned before he goes through the list of workers on the books of the bureau. As a matter of fact the provisions suggested by the Employers' Association should tend in every way to safeguard the interests of the out-of-work employee from being passed over. The idea of the Employers' Labour Bureau on the lines suggested in the circular certainly has much to recommend it. If met in the spirit which has evidently suggested its formation, there is no reason why it should not be a blessing to labour rather than the bane which the Council appears to consider it.