WATERSIDE WORKERS’ AWARD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19014, 9 November 1923, Page 9

WATERSIDE WORKERS’ AWARD.

THE STAND-BY TERMS. ARBITRATION COURT’S ACTION UPHELD. (Peb United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, November 8. The Full Bench of the Supreme Court gave judgment in the case of the Waterside Workers’ Federation v. Mr Justice Frazer and the members of the Arbitration Court, a case in which the jurisdiction of the latter to make certain terms of the award w-ith referencg.to the standing by of workers was called into question. The court was unanimous in its opinion that the clause objected to was not ultra vires, and that the motion should bo dismissed with costs (50 guineas). The court also had to consider the question whether the Supreme Court had jurisdiction to deal with the_ matter by way of prohibition or certiorari. Air Justice Salmond. who delivered the court’s judgment, said an award of the Arbitration Court was examinable in the Supreme Court, and a writ of prohibition could issue from the latter to the Arbitration Court. In the present case, however, no proceedings were being taken to enforce the award, and therefore there was nothing to prohibit. A prohibition to restrain an ultra vires award must wait until an attempt was made to enforce it. In his opinion there was nothing pending in the Arbitration Court which could be made the subject, of prohibition. If appellant wore entitled to any relief, it was by way of certiorari, and. in his opinion, the latter was applicable in the present case if a good case were made out on its merits. Dealing with the question of merit, he raid the clause of the award with reference to standing bv was obieoted to on the grounds that it did not deal with an industrial matter, and compelled .men to accept employment. In his opinion it did not compel them to accept, or return to. work; it merely regulated the terms of their employment, after they had entered into a contract of service.