“A REMARKABLE PRODUCTION."

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3553, 19 June 1912, Page 2

“A REMARKABLE PRODUCTION."

ms HONOR MR. JUSTICE SIM’S COMMENT. ON SECTION OF ARBITRATION ACT. His Honor Mr. Justice Sim‘delivered judgment yesterday in the case of the Gisborne' Slieepfarmcvs’ .application to have a mutual agreement with the Waterside Workers made into an award of the Arbitration Court. His Honor said that section 3 of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Amendment Act, 1911, under which the application was made, was in its way quite a remarkable production'. The .application would be refused, and until the section had been put into an intelligible shape it was useless for any further applications to be made under it-

His Honor continued “There are two grounds on which it would have been- necessary to refuse the present application. The first is tllllt tllO tQim for which the agreement has been made is in excess of the limit fixed by section 25 (2) of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, 190 S. Tlie term of three years, for which an agreement may be made, must be computed from the date of tlie making of the agreement, and, net. as in the present case, front some future date. The other ground is that the evidence proves that the agreement is binding on employers who employ a majority of the workers in the industry to which it relates in Gisborne. But that is not enough. Before the power given by section 3 can be exercised it must be nroved that the agreement is binding on employers who employ a majority of the workers in the industry to which it relates in the industrial district in which it was made, that is to say in . the whole of the northern industrial district.”