ARBITRATION COURT

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22353, 20 May 1944, Page 7

ARBITRATION COURT

RESTORATION of full powers TRADES COUNCIL’S CLAIM (By Telegraph.—Press Association) AUCKLAND, Friday A decision to ask the Government to restore the full powers of the Arbitration Court was reached at :i meeting of the Auckland Trades Council last night and the national executive of the Federation of Labour is to be urged to take up the matter with the Government.Since stabilisation began the Court has .lost almost all powers for dealing with disputes, said the president oi the council, Mr F. Craig, this morning in commenting on the decision. Agreements made in conciliation could not be ratified by the i Court if they in any way infringed the stabilisation regulations, as everything agreed on seemed to be contrary to the regulations. In consequence the Court for practical purposes had ceased to exist. Workers felt they were left without an independent judicial tribunal where they could state their case for increases in remuneration and improvements in conditions they considered due to them, in view of the increased cost of living, which no workers accepted at the official figure of 13 per cent increase since the commencement of the war.

Instead of being determined by arbitration, workers’ conditions and wages were new controlled by stabilisation regulations and by a Wages Commissioner appointed by the Government. When the present Government entered office one of the main planks, said Mr Craig, was the restoration of the workers’ right to go to arbitration to settle disputes.