INDUSTRIAL PEACE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11190, 21 April 1922, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL PEACE

INDIVIDUAL ASSESSORS “CUMBERSOME, INHARMONIOUS AND EXPENSIVE. WHAT CHANGE MIGHT LEAD TO. Recently the “Times” published details of the new American system of individual assessors, chosen from basic industries, to act as consultative advisers in settling industrial disputes. The policy has been commended in Auckland and Wellington contemporaries. “Cumbersome, impracticable, expensive, and inharmonious,” was the Verdict 6n the scheme of a man who has had a long association with arbitration work, who was consulted by a representative of this paper yesterday. “ISOLATED ADJUDICATION.” “In tho first place,” he said, “if individual assessors were appointed, every dispute would be dealt with in an isolated way, without reference to other trades, and, consequently, there would be no uniformity in the award, whioh, in itself, would have a very detrimental effect throughout the Dominion, as it has been tound in practice that where workers have conditions in one trade or distinct that do not exist in another, it breeds friction and discontent. “Again, in the appointment of individual assessors, partisans would invariably be appointed who w.ould be strongly opposed, one to the other, and who would very often strive to get points in favour of the union or particular employer represented, without regard to the intci-ests of other unions or employers. It would be a ease of puH-devil-pull-string between partisan assessors. The judge would bo placed in a very invidious position indeed; in fact, it is doubtful if a man with the necessary standing would occupy the position.

EXPENSE OF INDIVIDUAL SYSTEM.

“Many disputes have to be heard in various centres of the -different industrial districts, sometimes as many as eight at on© hearing. What would this proposal mean ? It would mean that sixteen assessors would have to be appointed, to sit with the judge throughout the Wellington sittings, for example, and they would then have to accompany him through the whole of the industrial district, namely, Napier, Masterton. Palmerston North, and Waganui. Tneso men would be travelling the whole time at the Government's expense, although working for only a very email poition of their time. Then, having arrived at the final place of hearing, say Wanganui, they would have to be retained until such time as the whole of the awards were made. As the assessors would strenuously fight every clause of the awards, it would take a considerable time before the whole of them were completed. The' judge would necessarily -have to remain Wanganui during this lengthy period, extending tho court’s sittings in every place, no matter how urgent the need of other centres. Awards would vary in different centres. There would be no uniformity, and no possibility of anything like a standard award. It would be a retrograde movement. The cost would ; b© enormous. There would be no quid pro quo for tire - money expended. ;Iri practice the scheme is impracticable and/ impossible.- I

N.Z. AND OTHER LANDS,. “Look at tho present position in New Zealand,” said another. “Anyone who has watched industrial affairs closely must realise that no country in the world can give New Zealand a lead in the matter of the quality of its legislative machinery for settling industrial disputes. I say. this .-with a close acquaintance of the varying methods employed in the Australian, States, and the impasse they haye reached recently; and with some knowledge of methods adopted in other parte of th 6 world. Of the new American experiment the details to hand do not show how ii works with the Federal Court and the various State courts. But take our basio industries. There has never -been a year till this-one, when there wasn’t a fairly big dispute in the freezing industry. In the coal-mining industry, too, things are better; men are earning bigger money,. there is a greater output, there are no disputes. The same applies to the shearing industry. Let well alone, while we may.”