INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21164, 22 April 1932, Page 10

INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

METHOD OF CONCILIATION.

CASES NOW BEFORE COURT.

REFERENCE BACK TO COUNCILS

[BY TELEGRAPH.—I'IIESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, Thursday.

A number of industrial cases set down for hearing by tho Arbitration Court will probably be dealt with under tho new Act when if, has received the assent of the Governor-General.

Members of the Court will hold a sitting at Wanganui on Friday of next week and at New Plymouth on May 2.

Applications in reference to industrial cases havj been in suspense owing to tho new legislation. All such cases now pending are to be referred back to conciliation councils to be dealt with under the Act, and until the necessary preliminaries have been disposed of, it will mean that some weeks will elapse before the Arbitration Court is able to deal with industrial disputes.

A few days ago, when an industrial disputo was called in tho Arbitration Court, Mr. Justice Frazer said as soon as possible after the Act had been passed and had received :he signature of tho Governor-General, the Court would make an order referring pending disputes to the conciliation commissioners to be settled as required under tho new legislation.

After the New Plymouth cases on May 2, sittings will be suspended until the work of the Transport Appeal Board is disposed of and the Court will resume its sittings again early in June at Dunedin or Invercargill. Under the amended law, an award after running for six months may be again brought up lor review as if it had expired.

A conciliation council may agree on a settlement and the terms of the settlement are to bo put in writing, signed by the assessors and filed by the Clerk of Awards, in which case it becomes operative as an industrial agreement binding on all parties to the dispute. There are provisions for the Arbitration Court exempting employers who show sufficient cause for being esempted. If a conciliation council does not effect a complete settleinent of the dispute, the required majority of assessors may agree that any matters remaining unsettled are to be referred to the Court, in which case the procedure will be exactly the same £.s in the first instance. A conciliation cDuncil may not succeed in arriving at a settlement, and at the same time may net agree by the required majority to refer the dispute to the Court. In that case, this council may adjourn for not more thar. 14 days to enable the parties to consider tlie matter further, and after resuming, if the council does not agree to the dispute being referred to the Court for settlement, the existing award shall be deemed to be cancelled at the expiration oi one month_ from the date of the commissioner's notification of that fact to the Clerk of Awards. Having gone through this procedure, it, is understood that the parties may again endeavour to reach a settlement among themselves, and then take further conciliation proceedings in the way described.