NO FIXTURE MADE BY THE COURT TO HEAR CLAIMS FOR INCREASED WAGES

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 May 1950, Page 5

NO FIXTURE MADE BY THE COURT TO HEAR CLAIMS FOR INCREASED WAGES

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA) A date for the hearing of an application for a general wage order was not set by the Arbitration Court this morning when the application for a fixture came before it. Two reasons were given by Mr. Justice Tyndall for not making the fixture at present. They were that no reply had yet been received by the Federation of Labour to its representations to the Government on the matter of the alteration of the Court’s powers dealing with wage orders and that the Arbitration Court had not been officially advised of the Government’s abo-ition of subsidies. The application for a general wage order was made by the New Zealand Federated Furniture and Related Trades Industrial Association nt Workers under the Economic Stabilisation Regulations, 1950. The president of the New Zealand Federation of Labour (Mr. A. W. Croskery), on behalf of the applicant union, said that, concerning the application, a number of things had happened since the application was put in. "It Is common knowledge that we have approached the Government asking it to alter the regulations bearing on the Court’s powers to deal with such applications,” said Mr Croskery. "We are waiting to hear what the Government has to say. “It would be unfair to the people concerned and unfair to the Court itself if we were forced to go on with the application at the present moment. We ask that the application be held over until the party concerned can approach the Court again, with the representatives of the other side, and come to a decision.” “Tn view of what Mr. Croskery has said it would be unreasonable to proceed with the application,” said the assistant secretary of the New Zealand Employers’ Federation (Mr. J. R. Han-on), who appeared for the employers. “If the Federation of Labour ban approached the Government and has not yet had a reply we do not wish to embarrass them in any way. Hov/. ever, we would' like the matter disposed of aS soon as possible.” JUDGE’S DECISION. “If Mr. Croskery had not suggested the action he did. the Court would have suggested the same course for two reasons,” said Mr. Justice Tyndall. “Tlie first is that the body fathering the application, the Federation of Labour, has made certain representations to the Government, the outcome of which is not yet known. “The second reason is that the Court has not yet received any official confirmation concerning the statements in tho Press regarding the -abolition of subsidies,” he said. Mr. Tyndall said that when the matter was clear the applicant could approach the Court again for a fixture.