The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER. (Established 1890.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1931 The Arbitration Court

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 258, 9 October 1931, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post With which is Incorporated “THE EGMONT SETTLER. (Established 1890.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1931 The Arbitration Court

?T is impossible at present to understand Mr. Downie Stewart s i statement that it is proposed to amend the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act mainly on the lines suggested by the 1928 Industrial Conference.” Whatever they “suggested, the delegates to this conference failed to agree about compulsory conciliation” or “voluntary arbitration.” Most of them wished to amend the Act, and some of them to end it, but while the employers insisted that the reference of disputes to the Arbitration Court should be optional, the employees’ representatives were equally emphatic that compulsion should remain. In the end both sides presented separate reports incorporating their rcommendations and there, after three years, the matter still stands. The fact no doubt is that the Government is not able, or does not think it prudent, to say yet precisely what its proposals are, since they enter into the Financial Statement only in a general and indirect way. But most people will now assume that what the Government intends is an amendment of the Act along the lines suggested at the 1928 Conference by the employers, or if not by all the employers, by the delegates representing the primary producers. Although the conference ended in a deadlock, it was understood that the primary producers were willing to waive their objections to the State regulation of wages and working conditions if the employees would surrender the compulsory clauses. This actually never happened, but proposals were made under which a dispute would be referred to the Conciliation Council for settlement, and carried on appeal to the Arbitration Court if both sides consented to such a course, and asked for it. 'lf something like that is proposed again, farmers will breathe more easily, but it will mean that the Court has ceased to be a wage-fixing body except by request, and this is such a sensational break with the tradition of the last 35 years that it would be unwise to take it for granted without further evidence.