THE ARBITRATION COURT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13454, 3 June 1907, Page 6

THE ARBITRATION COURT.

AN IMPORTANT POINT.

[BY , TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

■'. '." ■■■■■.-■ Wellington, Saturday. A toint raised in the Arbitration Court yesterday, regarding the duty of employers where a dispute has been before, the Conciliation, Board and its recommendations are

acceptable to the union seeking for an award, was further referred to by the president. The Court considered that where both sides had been represented before the Board, and the Board had made a reconi-

aendation, that recommendation ought to

be treated as prima facie a fair and reason- : able settlement of an industrial dispute. The Court had jurisdiction to 'make an award . after having the points in dispute discussed by the parties without hearing any evidence at all, and, although a recommendation had strictly no legal effect after a dispute had been referred to the Court there was nothing to prevent the Court from calling on the party who had referred the:dispute to it to show cause why ' the recommendation of the Board should not be i adopted as a basis of an award. If such party could not adduce . any , valid reason for j disregarding the recommendation without calling on the other side, the Court might make an award on the basis of the recom-1 mendation. In cases,where neither side] was satisfied with the recommendation of; the Board, then the party who brought the dispute forward would have to begin at the hearing before the Arbitration Court, but,| even in such a case, it might be convenient to take the recommendation as a starting ' point.; "" , The Court also took the opportunity of saying . that "in cases where th"ere was an existing award or, an industrial agreement which it was desired to have modified, the union in framing its demands should take the award or the agreement as the starting point, and show, exactly in what respects it j was desired to have it modified. ■';'