SENT TO SELECT COMMITTEE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18832, 21 March 1931, Page 17 (Supplement)

SENT TO SELECT COMMITTEE.

Arbitration Act Bill. MEASURE DECLARED VINDICTIVE. United Press Association—By Electrlo Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, March 20. The Legislative Council, by 33 to 24, referred the Arbitration Bill to a Select Committee. The Hon. A. C. Willis, the Government's representative in the Council, said the decision would be accepted as an intended insult to the Labour Party. No Labour member would sit on the Committee. During the debate. Mr Pillan, supporting the Bill, said it would bring industrial peace. The provisions were so drastic that workers would not have to bow the knee to foreign capitalists, who were coining here imposing unfair conditions. Mr Browne declared that the Bill was vindictive, and was an exhibition of diabolical cunning. He protested against Clause XIII. constituting an Industrial Commission, which Mr Boyce ; has described as enabling anyone to be appointed a Mussolini in industry. Mr Browne looked ahead with horror to the time when Mr J. S. Garden might be clothed with a Commissioner's unprecedented powers. To try to amend the Bill in Committee would take months. The only alternative was a Select Committee. PROVISIONS OF BILL. PIECEWORK SYSTEM PROHIBITED The Bill provides for the abolition of the existing Industrial Con.:mission and the appointment of Mr Justice Piddington as sole Commissioner. It grants complete preference to financial unionists and abolition of loyalist unions. The basic wage will be determined on the basis of a man and wife, and rights to Government employees will be restored similar to those existing outside the service. Piecework or bonus system will be prohibited in industry. Domestic servants, if organised in a union, will be permitted to obtain an award covering wages and conditions.

The measure further makes provision for a union official to examine any employee either alone or in the presence of his employer on any matter relating to his employment or work. He is also empowered on authority of the Industrial Commission or conciliation committee to hold meetings of employees on or adjacent to the premises of the employer during non-working time. The commission or conciliation committee shall not award rates of pay or other conditions of employment for females doing the same class of work as males so as to result in females being employed in preference to males. The Bill gives the committees unrestricted jurisdiction in respect of all classes of employees, irrespective of their wages or remuneration, and including persons occupying managerial positions. Power is given to the commission to conduct an investigation into the financial position, the business transactions, and working conditions of any employer or group of employers. The definition of employee will cover insurance agents, canvassers, collectors and commercial travellers.