NON-UNIONIST WORKERS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVII, Issue 9, 8 December 1926, Page 3

NON-UNIONIST WORKERS.

ARBITRATION JUDGMENT. HOW EMPLOYERS CAN BE SAFEGUARDED. Per Press Association. CHRISTCHURCH, Dec. 7. “Before a non-unionist boot operative is engaged, must an employer first make application to the union to ascertain whether any unemployed unionists of equal ability willing to undertake the work are available?” As the result of an application by the Inspector of Awards, this question has been considered by Mr Justice Frazer, President of the Arbitration Court. “The preference clause of this award is worded in a somewhat unusual manner,” lie states, in the course of his judgment. “The clause does not expressly state that an employer must make such inquiries, but the implication is clear that he is expected first to ascertain from the union whether such a worker is available. If he does not make the inquiry, and it appears that the union liad on its unemployed list a unionist worker of equal ability willing to undertake the work, he commits a breach of the award. When, for any reason, it is inconvenient for an employer to make inquiry of the union, he can safeguard himself by requiring a prospective employee to become a member of the union before he engages him.”