THE ARBITRATION BILL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2309, 30 September 1908, Page 1

THE ARBITRATION BILL.

THE AMENDED MEASURE.

[Special to “Times.”]

WELLINGTON, Sept. 28

Tho Arbitration Bill having now passed its final stages in the House of Representatives, tho leading provisions of tlio amended measure, as it will go to tho Legislative Council, may be summarised: STRIKES AND LOOK-OUTS.

A worker wlio strikes while working subject to an award is liable to a fine not exceeding £lO, and any person who instigates, assists or in any way aids these illegal actions is similarly liable, if a worker; but if it is some industrial association, trade union, or poison other than a worker, thou the maximum fine is £2OO. The onus is thrown upon any person who makes any gift for tho benefit of anyone who is a party to a strike or lock-out of proving that ho acted without the intent to aid the illegal strike or lockout. A strike which would interfere with the supply or production of certain public utilities, is prohibited under a penalty not exceeding £25 per man. The industries specified are: Coal gas, electricity, water, milk, meat, cool, and tlio tramway, ferry, and railway services. Persons who aid and abet a strike in these special industries may bo fined £25, and corporate bodies or poisons other than workers £2OO. A union of workers convicted of having aided and abetted a strike may, upon being fined •for that offence, bo suspended for a period not exceeding two years, during which timo tho award applying to its members in tho particular district will bo inoperative. Employers guilty of locking-out their men while an award is current may he lined up to £SOO. BREACHES OF AWARD.

Cases of breaches of award wall como before the nearest Stipendiary Magistrate, though there is power to ■take them direct to tho Arbitration Court. In case of a strike or lockout the maximum penalty in tho case of a worker is £lO, and in the case of an employers’ association or industrial union £IOO.. These penalties may bo recovered in the same fashion as ordinary debts, but no Court fees are payable in respect to the action. The wages over £2 earned by a married worker, widower or widow with children, may bo attached in default of payment, while the unmarried worker may bo called upon to pay everything over £1 per week to satisfy a judgment for -unpaid tines. Members of trade unions or employers’ associations are individually liable to the extent of £5 in default ,of payment of a fine imposed upon the organisation. CONCILIATION COMMISSIONERS. The old Conciliation Boards and Special Boards of Conciliation arc replaced by permanent Conciliation Commissioners, appointed for three years, and an application for the services of tho Council of Conciliation must state the nature of the dispute, and give the names of not more than three assessors, wlio, together with- three nominated by the other side, and the Conciliation Commissioner (who has no vote) form tho tho Council. These assessors must havo been actualy engaged in the industry concerned, .and if some of the parties agree to accept the Conciliation Council’s recommendations, these may bo duly executed as a memorandum of consent, binding only upon those who have signed it, though the now Act widens the definition of worker, to include any person employed by any employer for hire or reward. It .removes the possibility which prevailed under the principal Act, of domestic servants calling upon the Arbitration Court to regulate their duties, for “worker” will not include a person employed “otherwise than for. the direct or indirect pecuniary gain of the employer.” The Arbitration' Court is constituted as before, but a change in the method of electing the assesors is provided, each union being allowed one vote for every fifty members.'