PUBLIC BODIES AND INDUSTRIAL UNIONS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1536, 7 August 1901, Page 53

PUBLIC BODIES AND INDUSTRIAL UNIONS

Copies of the following communication have been sent by the Wellington Harbour Board to all local bodies in the Wellington industrial district: The Wellington Amalgamated Society of Painters’ and Decorators’ Industrial Union cf Workers have joined the Wellington Harbour Board with J 27 other employers m a “dispute.” The ' Wellington llarboui Beard do not employ professional painters, but they liav© their ordinary tarling, whitewashing and painting of sheds, fences, machinery, etc., performed by labourers. The painting is p un raily delayed to periods when shipping work is slack,and. the work is divided amongst th© labourers who would otherwise be idle during such .Jack seasons. As mest wharf labourers are seafaring men they are skilled in the rough class of painting required for the Board’s work,and in fact execute it more speedily and in a more satisfactory manner than professional tradesmen would. It is understood lLat under the requirements of the union, if granted, th© Board would be .lebaitcd from employing any others for pamtinowork than members ol the union, at special rates of wages, and under special conditions and hours of labour. The Board not having employed renters have had no dispute ’ with them, and were not aMare that any “dispute” existed between the master painters or other employers of tabov.r and the lourncymeii painters, until they received the summons to attend the Conciliation Board on the 25th inst. The Conciliation Board have declined to omit the Wellington Harbour Board from th© “dispute,’ and as the Harbour Board will therefore become a party to the recommendations of the Conciliation Board, it became necessary to point out that other local bodies (such as borough and county councils, education Boards, other harbour boards, road boards, etc., within the Wellington industrial district, who in the cours© of the maintenance of their works necessarily have painting executed by their ordinary employees) ought to be summoned so as to be able to show cause why they should not be included in the award, or if included to enable them to have a voice in the conduct of the “disFi' v j. notlce were not given to the local bodies and an award were made (and an agreement to the recommendations of the Conciliation Board by the parties cited, either voluntarily or by de . ianiL-hfiCOmes an award of Court) all the

brought under its provisions under subsection 3 of section 86 of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 1900. This section reads as follows :—“The award, by force of this Act, shall extend to and bind as subsequent party thereto every industrial union, industrial association, or employer, who, not being origiMl party thereto, is at any time whilst the award is in force connected with or engaged in the industrv to which the award applies within the industrial district to which the award relates.” The local bodies may argue that they are not “connected] with or engaged in” the painting trade, but that argument lias not prevailed with the Conciliation Board in the case of the Wellington Harbour Board. It was therefore determined to apply t© the Conciliation Board to attach to the “dispute” all th© oher local bodies in he industrial district, and that Board has directed that they are to be attached, and has fixed Monday, the sth of August as the date by which such bodies must have lodged an objection to the attachment or have appeared before the Board, and in default of any such objection it is understood that such bodies will be attached as parties to the “dispute” and will become parties to any award made. This action of the representatives of the Harbour Board in attaching the local bodies to the dispute may cause inconvenience, hut I trust that you will agree with me that the principles involved are serious ones—whether public bodies carrying out statutory duties should be involved in “disputes” between master and journeymen tradesmen, and whether for ordinary maintenance work members'of trade unions must be eu»p!ov<‘d. (Signed) William Ferguson, Secretary.