INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION

Otago Witness, Issue 3383, 15 January 1919, Page 24

INDUSTRIAL ARBITRATION

CONDEMNED BY LABOUR ORGANISATION.

The executive of tho Federation of Labour has issued a circular dealing with tho attitude of organised Labour to tho Conciliation and Arbitration The executive states that it has duly considered the matter, and having in view, on tho one hand, the growing dissatisfaction expressed by organised Labour with' the Act, both in principle and in the way it is administered by the Arbitration Court and the Department of Labour, and on the other hand, the urgent need for a reconstruction of the basis of industry to meet the changed conditions brought about by the war, it reports that in the opinion of the Trade Union movement of New Zealand, as expressed by numerous resolutions and signs of discontent, the system of industrial conciliation and arbitration, as embodied in the Act, and as interpreted by the present court, and administered by the Labour Department, fails to satisfy both the workers and the urgent needs of industry, and its failure in these directions will be the more apparent and disastrous in the time of industrial and social stress which, the executive thinks, will inevitably follow the war. The report states that the executive cannot suggest amendments to the Act, because it is based on compulsion, and tends to perpetuate - the wages system, to rob employers and employed of liberty of action and of freedom to organise as each thinks best, and that what is wrong in principle cannot be amended so as to be ultimately beneficial in practice. In the United Kingdom, where industry has felt the effects of tho war more severely than in New Zealand, and where the after-effects can be more clearly seen, it is stated employers and employees have rejected all proposals for compulsory conciliation and arbitration, and it seems desirable to the executive that industry in all parts of the Empire should be guided by the same rules. The executive suggests a programme to suit the industrial requirements in New Zealand. This includes nationalisation of industries, a national industries council, advisory councils, district councils, and works committees.