Our Tndustrial Problems.
laborers, shearers, barmen, fitters, ete.,
and no Court, even with Solomon in the
chair, can give awards on conditions that
can be applied with fairness through the
industry,
Shearers’ quarters to fill requirements
of ‘an award can perhaps be easily met
on some stations. On others they cannot.
A prosperous mine can give its employ-
ees holidays; not so the struggling eom-
Dany
Overtime rates fair to an interstate ship»
ping company would strangle a local coasts
ing fleet, and so on.
From the vortex of the existing whirl
pool of laws, State and Federal, and union
constitutions, we must be extricated, and
the oily way we can extricate ourselves is
by -simplification. The work of the Courts
must’ be pruned down, and they shonld
deal with broad essentials, whilst the de-
tails must be settled by those best fitted
to settle them. employer and employee,
Some Suggestions.
Having shown a few of the weaknesses
of the present system, I would propose; —
(1) ‘The Arbitration Act to be amend-
ed, in as much as tle functions of
the Court, composed as at present,
should be limited to: .
(a) Fixing from time to time a basic
wage. .
(b) Fixing a minimum rate of pay
or each trade, calling, occupation,
ete.
© Fixing the number of hours to
e worked weekly in any indus
try.
{d) Fixing the number of apprentices
that may be employed to each jours
neyman. This to be.on a sliding
scale, s0 that the small workshop
or factory could have apprentices.
(e) Appointment of arbitrators to
complete working agreements;
(2) Federal arbitration laws to have no
application in this State.
(3) The introduction of individual bare
galing, By this I mean that the meme
ers of each union make their own
agreement with their own particular
employer. The unit for thig purpose
i describe as “individual >?
All matters referring’ to conditions of
employment, special rates of pay for spe-
cial work, overtime pay, holidays, conces-
sions, uniforms, sick leave, ete, I would
remove entirely from the Court, and all
these matters would be settled by individ
ual bargaining between the employer and
his own employees.
This is the method adopted by the most
prosperous Knights of Labour in the
world, namely the workers in the United
States.
“The Western Mail”
11
The minimum wage and the weekly hours
fixed by..the Court would prevent exploi
tation of the worker. It is then for the
local employees in_any indusiry to have
that minimum raised, and to obtain the
best agreement they can for themselves,
In each shop, factory, or industry the
workers would appoint their own repre-
sentatives to: negdtiate with the ent»
nlover.
Having settlad - by agreement whatever
points «they ‘could, the: remaining points
would: be gattled by an arbitrator appoints
ad -by ‘the Arbitration Court
Instead of the various unions going to
court, as at present, and finding a dogen
other. unions waiting at the door, they
would ‘have their own Court functioning
tight ‘away. ~ The union representatives
would appoint one man to the hoard, the
employer another, the Cowrt at their re
quest woull send a chairman. Neither
employer nor employed weuld have any
say. 4s to ‘who this. chairman . would be.
He would be set from a sclected roster,
drawn up by the Court. This knowledga
would make both partios to the dispute
anxious to leave as little ag possible for
the arbitrator to pass judgment on, They
might win, but on tle other hapde
So far, so good, but where are we to
ret this roster of arbitrators that would
se suitable? say vou.
This is what my proposals hinge on,
Well, we have to hand a cultured class,
with “liberal opinions by virtue of their
craining. Men with no axe to grind, nor
as a class are they seeking political op
legal preferment Men accustomed to aus
thority. yet to succeed they have to be
very human, A roster of 50 names who
wotld be eminently suitable could be
Irawn from:—(1) University professors;
(2) University lecturers: (3) heads of
secondary schools; (4) editors and stb
editors of approved publications {sporting
sheets and ephemeral productions ineli
gible); (5) head teachers of first-class
State schools. . These men would, I
think, be far more acceptable to both
sides than could any legal luminary. There
is no. legal position to be observed. No
precedents to be made uniform. A fair
and a commonsense medium between the
opposing parties has to be arrived at and
this system would allow 20 industrial digs
putes being dealt with at once, and no
necessity to consider what the decision
in another case micht men.
All such vexatious questions as bonns
systems. merit money, ete, can be settled
in each shop, factory or industry, by each
separate employer with their own ems
vloyees, irrespective of what his neighbour
night do,
The People’s Weekly.