AN ARBITRATION

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13356, 21 December 1906, Page 4

AN ARBITRATION

Th€>. x decision <>f , tiho ) Arhiitraiaon Gourt in the case of ,the / Shipmasters.' Association' of New Zealand, Industrial -Association of Workers versusthc (Wellington Harbour Board is one which affects every Harbour Board in the "colony, although fh'e Association did not , seek an award generally" aga'ihst employers'; of its members. tTlwj Association sought an award under" the Industrial Conciliation and Artxitraltion /Act, 1905, but the Harbour Board ma/dc a preliminary objection, held, holding- . that , the ..jurisdictiion tion of the Court to make such an award. This ob jeptipn \ thie ,Coutt 'upheld, ,' holdmg-.that the jurisdiction givai to ,it is' to settle "industrial dispute!©/' which' are denned by, the Act as disputes <', in. relation to "indastaial matters." The; latter are defined as to "matters affecting or relating- to work done or tp be done by workers, ! or the privileges, rights, and duties ,of employers' .of workers in any- industry.* "Industry" is further defined to mean ''any busK ness, trader manufacture, / undertaking; calling, or employment in which workers are employed," j and defines Worker as meaning "any person of any age or either sex employed by any employer to do any skilled b-r unskilled manual or clerical . .work for hire or reward." The real qxiestion for the Court .to decide, , was, j the judgment said—^' Are the persons! referred to employed .to, do manual or clerical \'work[f'. '^The Court did not tb!ink a shipmaster was really primarily employed to ,db- either manual or clerical \vorl<, " but "to v bommiand, and navigate ships, and that the duties of hai'ib'ourma'stersi'.v 'Whether ,/ on vessels" or on .th.^.*,WharVes, Jhe dairies of pilots, arid the,, duties &t tug or diedgemasters, ' wjere substantially of the same nattered -Taking the whole range of the Maws relating to labour and to worTsers^'&foiSr'in England awd New Zeala3i<V r it Would foe? difficult to find any ' detailed ■ definition that would include -men of- this c-lass. The Court also foWnd that the whole scheme of the clause of the Harbours Act relating to Harbofur Board • employees' . was . inoomsistent with a system, of arbitration relating to workers for hire or reward under, which preference to meiribers of the union might be given , in the discrer tion of^tbe l CkiwJSr,;, I -4M»t©ad of the responsibility being^eft to the iboard appointed by law ian'd clothed witlr the duty dt disinfcerestddly. - exercising* its authority in iiho interests, of the ptftilic. The Legislature had never the slightest i#te/n ; tdon to repeal the provisions oi thW Harbours Act, and 'it 'would be oohirary to eommonse'nse, the "Court held, to put such a forced oonstruclflon • upon .the expression "worker" as to malce.it include. , these' responsibfe . fuuictionaries. Thus it is decided tkat h'arbaur-

imastefs, pilots. 'Hi'edg'e masters, ancl 'shipmdstors generally; p.VQ not "workers" within the meaning <:f the Act.

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