TAILORING TRADE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21982, 17 June 1933, Page 15

TAILORING TRADE

AN INDUSTRIAL AGREEMENT APPLICATION FOR AWARD - REFUSED. (Peb United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. June 16. In its reserved judgment the Arbitration Court refused and application to declare as an award an industrial agreement between the Christchurch Tailoresses, Pressers, and Cutters’ Union and the employers. The refusal was made because there is an award in existence binding on certain employers w T ho are not parties to the industrial agreement, and that agreement could not supersede the‘award until the latter is cancelled.

Mr Justice Frazer said the special point which the court had to consider was a novel one. The term of the Canterbury shirt, white, and silk workers' award had expired, but it continued in force until a new award or industrial agreement was made. No dispute had arisen since the expiry, and no application to a conciliation commissioner had been made. The union of workers and a number of employers, who were parties to the award, had entered into an agreement under section 28, and those employers who were objecting to the present application were not parties to the agreement. Could such agreement supersede an award of the court so completely as to have the effect of cancelling it in toto? It was noteworthy that the Act made careful provision for safeguarding the parties to an industrial agreement from any interference with the rights under it by any subsequent industrial agreement entered into by some only of their number. The original industrial agreement remained in force in so far as the parties who did not execute the subsequent agreement were concerned.