HEAVY ARREARS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22878, 5 November 1937, Page 12

HEAVY ARREARS

ACTION ESSENTIAL

MINISTER'S EXPLANATION QUESTIONS BY OPPOSITION [BY TELEGRAPH —SPECIAL REPORTER] WELLINGTON*, Thursday The necessity for adopting measures which would enable the Arbitration* Court to catch up with arrears of work was stressed by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. 11. T. Armstrong, speaking on the introduction of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives to-day. When the House went into committee to discuss the introduction the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, pointed out that the bill was the second amendment to the Arbitration Act brought down by tho Government this session. He thought tho .Minister should say how many further alterations he proposed to make in the legislation. "This bill is urgently needed to enable the Arbitration Court to catch up with arrears of work," said tho Minister. "The cases which are before tho Court at present have been I'2 months waiting for a hearing and it is obvious that, something must bo done to deal with the position. Assistance by Magistrates

"Under this bill a second Court of Arbitration will be set up temporarily to assist in clearing off the arrears of work. It will go out of existence automatically at the end of 12 months, if not before. Personally, I do not think it will take 12 months to catch up with the arrears as the bill also provides for stipendiary magistrates and other legal officials to deal with less important aspects of industrial cases, which may be referred to them. There are many matters of minor importance which can bo dealt with by those officials, but they will not have the power to fix awards."

The Minister mentioned that the permanent Court and the temporary Court would both have the same powers and the same constitution. It was felt in some quarters that it might be advisable for one Court to specialise in compensation matters and another suggestion was that, one of tho two Courts should be given tho task of dealing with certain specified types of industrial cases to avoid conflict of opinions. Both those suggestions would receive consideration.

New Citation Procedure

The bill also provided for an alteration in the citation procedure, Mr. Armstrong continued. The present method was very cumbersome and tho new arrangement would be welcomed by organisations of both workers and employers. "There was a certain amount of argument last year regarding the application of awards to organisations which do not employ labour for pecuniary gain," said Mr. Armstrong. "We agreed to drop our proposal then as it might have caused a certain amount of hardship, but it is now proposed to make racing clubs, trotting clubs and chartered clubs subject to awards. They can very well afford it."

Comments on Basic Wage

"I wonder if the Minister "is taking the opportunity to wipe out the basic wage," said Mr. S. G. Holland (Opposition —Ckristchurcli North). "He has already said that the basic wago is useless because everybody is getting more and I am sure he docs not want sunerfluons legislation." "The basic wage applies only to workers covered by awards and industrial agreements," said the Minister. "In no award or agreement are wages fixed as low as. the basic wage. Still, I think it is just as well to keep the basic wage there in case there is any attempt to reduce wages in future." The bill was read a second time pro forma and referred to the Labour Bills Committee.