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.