NEW TYPE OF EMPLOYER

Southland Times, Issue 19659, 9 October 1922, Page 2

NEW TYPE OF EMPLOYER

WHO NEITHER FEARS NOR FIGHTS THE WORKERS. “The day has aiyived for the new type of employer, one who neither fears nor fights his workpeople, but who identifies their interests with his own, and founds his relationship with them on the law of mutual service.” This (states the Sydney Morning Herald) is the opinion of Mr H. F. Lancashire, chairman of J. B. Lewis and Sons., Ltd., of Nottingham, England, who is just now in Sydney. Mr Lancashire is a business man of wide experience, and is at the present time chairman of the joint industrial council for the hosiery manufacturing trade of England, which consists of equal number of employers and workers’ representatives. The words quoted above were used by him at the conclusion of an address to a meeting of the employees and directors of his firm, at which it was decided to establish works’ councils as recommended by the Whitely Committee. Mr Lancashire stated in Sydney that he was satisfied, that the works councils’ scheme must be productive of great good to all concerned, and he looked for its steady development and extension. He was convinced that a new spirit was abroad in industry—a gradual realisation of mutual interest, mutual dependence, and mutual responsibility. He believed that this was the spirit which would bring about in effect the industrial millennium. There is, in Mr Lancashire’s view, not the slightest fear of any revolutionary action by English workers. “The vociferous extremist, ’ he went on to say, “has his say in* England, just as he dops here; but the temper of the British people is entirely opposed to revolt, and the Communist agitator has not much hope of success. Furthermore, .the report? brought back from Russia by men who have actually gone there and examined the position for themselves, have gone a long way to convince the worker that the Muscovite i Solution has been a dismal failure.’’ Reverting to the joint industrial system, Mr Lancashire says that in all his experience he has found the workers’ representatives quite reasonable, and he is entirely convinced that the system is infinitely preferable to any sort of legal tribunal for the settlement of industrial difficulties. “The only way to settle these matters,” he continued, "is for the people engaged in the industry to put their legs under the same table and discuss matters in an amicable and business like spirit. At the same time, I am in favour of giving something approaching legislative effect to the decisions arrived at by these councils. As matters stand, employers are not actually compelled to fall into line with these decisions, though in practice they almost invariably do.” Mr Lancashire feels strongly that the greatest need in industry is to secure, as tar as possible, some adequate provision against unemployment. It is the dread of unemployment and the resultant . loss of savings and home comforts, he declares, that is the greatest menace to the wageearner, and the best industrial thinkers were concentrating their efforts on evolving some scheme that will mitigate this evil.