LABOUR PROBLEMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22710, 24 October 1935, Page 9

LABOUR PROBLEMS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ADDRESS BY MR T. 0. BISHOP Mr T. O. Bishop, secretary of the New Zealand Employers' Federation, Rave an address last night at the annual meeting: of the Otago Employers' Association on the impressions which he had found as a result of his attendance at the International Labour Conference held at Geneva. Mr Bishop said that when considering the international Labour organisation it was well to have in mind the way in which it had come into being. He then quoted the preamble to Article 13 of the Peace Treaty, which deals comprehensively with the relation of the League of Nations to the well-being of the worker. Article 13 of the Peace Treaty, he said, was indeed the foundation upon which the international Labour organisation was built up. The first conference had been held at Washington in 1919, and subsequent conferences had been held at Geneva. This year's conference had been the nineteenth session. CONSTITUTION OF CONFERENCE. There were on this occasion 3SB delegates and advisers present representing 48 different countries. That had not been a full attendance, as there were G2 States members. The procedure followed very much upon parliamentary lines. The president was elected for the conference and he discharged functions very similar to those of the Speaker in Parliament. The delegates were classed in three groups—(l) The Government group consisting of Government representatives; (2) the employers' group, and (3) the workers' group The voting upon draft conventions and resolutions was very much, although not wholly, upon party lines. The workers' : delegates, as was the case in Parlia- ' ment, usually voted strictly as a group. There was a little more variation in the voting of employers' delegates, and con- j siderably more variation in the voting , of members of the Government group. This latter group was the most unceri tain factor. j A DIFFICULT PART. The employers' delegates had the hardest part to play, as all proposals | put forward. had as their main object the betterment of the working conditions and social conditions of workers in all countries. Naturally, therefore, all proposals were supported by the workers' delegates, who endeavoured to force them through either as they were put forward by the governing body ! or with amendments which made them i still more favourable to the workers. j The Government delegates were influ- j enced in their voting by the political situation in their respective countries, | and it was almost invariably the case that a considerable number of Government delegates were prepared to supI port the workers' group. The employers' delegates were faced with the necessity of considering the hard, cold, economic facts in each case as they were the representatives of those who in their own countries, in the event of conventions being adopted and ratified, had to find the ways and means for carrying the new legislative proposals into effect. THE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES. The official languages of the conference were English and French. Perhaps more delegates spoke French than spoke English. Delegates from the British Empire countries, including India, spoke English. Delegates from practically all other countries spoke French. Official interpreters provided by the office of the organisation translated English speeches into French or French speeches into English immediately following upon their delivery. If a delegate wished to speak in any other language than these two, he had to provide his own interpreter, either into English or into French, and the office then provided the interpreter into the other language. In order to save time during the conference a very ingenious arrangement was made for the interpretation of long set speeches such as the president's address and the director's reply to the debate on his report. On the front of each desk there was a little dial rather like the dial on a radio set. This was connected with a pair of earphones. While the president of the conference he had attended was delivering his prepared opening address in English, anyone who wished to bear his speech in French or in German was able to do so while the speech was actually being delivered by putting on his earphones and turning the dial to the necessary stop. Interpreters on those occasions sat immediately below the speaker, and as the speech was delivered they translated it into another language using enclosed microphones through which their interpretation was transmitted to the earphones. The language difficulty was not nearly so great as one might suppose. The great majority of the delegates understood and spoke a little English, and so intercourse between them was comparatively easy outside the conference itself. ATTRACTIVE PERSONALITIES. The speaker explained the procedure to give effect to the decisions reached, and said that at such a gathering one met some attractive personalities. He had been very much impressed,with the representatives of the British Ministry of Labour. They were well educated men , who had a thorough knowledge of their subjects, and who had that ease and yet dignity of manner which one associates with Englishmen of the best type. BRITISH EMPLOYERS AND DELEGATES. A thing that was very pleasant to note was the friendliness that existed between the workers and employers' delegates from Britain and from the Empire countries, and it was rather amusing at times to observe the somewhat critical, sidelong glances of French, Italian, Spanish or other European workers' delegates as they passed a group of British Employers' and workers' delegates sitting together under an awning in an open air cafe with large steins of beer in their hands obviously enjoying each other's company—and the beer. Mr Bishop said that the conference had lasted three weeks, and he gave details of the hours of sitting and of the agenda. HOLIDAYS WITH PAY. This proposal was that employers in all countries should be required by law io give all workers an annual holiday upon full pay. The committee recommended that certain questions be addressed to participating countries as a preliminary step, and that on receipt of replies to this question, the office of the International Labour Organisation should set the question down in the form of a convention for consideration at the conference next year. He had, said Mr Bishop, voted against the recommendation, and he was in a very small minority indeed, but his reason for so voting was that in New Zealand they had a very highly developed system of collective bargaining, and under that system he was of the opinion that the i question of payment for holidays was one which should be decided along with nil other conditions of employment by direct negotiation between employers' , and workers' organisations. ,

HOURS OF WORK. A reduction of hours of work as a partial means of relieving unemployment had been much the most important item for discussion at the conference. As it had been originally set down on the Order Paper, the proposal was that hours of work should be reduced to 40 per week in five specified industries—namely, Public Works, building and contracting, iron and steel, glass bottle manufacture, and coal mines. He had opposed a reduction of hours in these industries because of the economic position in New Zealand, which was primarily an exporting country. "We are not unsympathetic to the idea of increased leisure for the workers of the world as a matter of general principle and because of its social and cultural value," said Mr Bishop. " When the rest of the world, particularly the I more important industrial countries, is ! is prepared to adopt measures of reform which will mean increased leisure New Zealand will be prepared to play its ; part. We do not, however, believe that even as applied to industries generally, the institution of a 40-hour week would have much effect on the unemployment situation. Even if it had a temporarily beneficial effect, we feel that the artificial stimulation of mechanisation would quickly counteract it." The conference had set up a commit- | tee composed of 46 members, namely, !22 Government members, 22 workers' i members, and two emplojers members. • the two last-named representing Italy and the United States, in which countries a reduction of 'lours was already !an accomplished fact. This committee had submitted its report in due course, and the conference had adopted a draft convention which read:— " Each member of the International j Labour Organisation which ratifies this convention declares its approval of: (a) The principle of a 40-hour week applied in such a manner that the standard of living is not reduced in consequence; and (b) The taking or facilitating of such measures as may be judged appropriate to secure this end; and undertakes to apply ihis principle to classes of employment with the detailed provisions to be prescribed by such separate conventions as are ratified by that member." It would be seen that there was no obligation on Governments to ratify this convention, nor to ratify subsequent conventions which might be adoptrd for specific industries. In his opinion this pos : tion was entirely unsatisfactory, and unless and until all the principal industrial countries agreed to ratify a convention simultaneously and faithfully to observe it no country would be r.ble to ratify it without seriously hand!japping itself in the competition for world markets. INVESTIGATING THE QUESTION. The British Ministry of Labour was investigating the question of the 40hour week thoroughly and was consulting both workers' and employers' organisations, but the view expressed by British Government delegates was that shorter working hours should be introduced industry by industry and as a result of negotiations and agreement between employers and workers rather than by legislation. There was a sound principle to uphold this view, namely, that the employers and workers concerned in any industry were best able to provide against disorganisation of their industry which might be expected to follow any radical change in working hours. The question of increased cost was one which must always receive consideration and provision must be made to meet it. Mr Bishop, in conclusion, said that the International Labour Organisation had come to stay, and he thought that steps should be taken to have New Zealand represented at it regularly at intervals of not less than three years, if not every year.