I.—9b.

2

[g. f. reylino.

MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. Wednesday, 13th September, 19 11. G. F. Reylinq examined. (No. 1.) 1. The Chairman.] What are you? —Secretary of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council and president of the Painters' Federation. 2. You also represent the Trades and Labour Councils of the Dominion, do you not?— Well, we have had no official authority to do so, although we received a letter asking us if we were going to give evidence, and we wrote back to tell them we were, and they left the matter in our hands. 3. Have the members of your council considered the Bill?- —Yes. 4. And you know their views? —Yes. 5. The Committee has decided, as we did in the case of the Workers' Compensation Amendment Bill, to restrict the evidence as far as may be to the four corners of this Bill?— Yes, I understand that. Witli regard to clause 2of the Bill, which deals with the cancellation of registration of a union and the formation of another union not affecting an award, the council approves of that clause as it appears in the Amendment Bill. Clause 3: "Where an industrial agreement has been duly completed by the parties thereto, and no objection has been made to the agreement by any of the parties affected thereby within one month of the signing of the agreement, the Court shall, upon the application of an)' of the parties to the agreement, declare the same to be an award, unless in the opinion of the Court such agreement is by reason of its provisions against the public good." The council considered that the words in the clause from " thereto "in the 19th line down to the word " agreement " in the 21st line should be deleted; and also that all words after the word " award " in the 22nd line shall be struck out and the following words inserted: "Where an industrial agreement has been duly completed by the parties the Court shall declare the same to be an award." 6. Will you explain the reason?—We consider that when all the parties are agreed that it should be made an award, it should not be allowed to si and over for a month; and also that the Court should not have the power when the parties do agree to an award or agreement to refuse in make it an award. Clause 4: The council approves of that with the deletion of the words " any one of those," in the 30th line, and substituting the word " the." I do not know that it makes a lot of difference, but that is my instruction from the council. In subsection (2) of clause 4, the council approves of that, and also subsection (3). Clause 5, " Provision for Dominion award." r lhe council approves of that. In subclause (8) of section (i we would like the words " industrial agreement" struck out and the word " award " substituted. That would make the clause read, " If within the time aforesaid no notice of disagreement has been filed the Clerk shall as soon as possible thereafter give notice in the prescribed form to the parties of the fact, and a recommendation shall, as from seven days after the date of that notice, operate and be enforceable in the same manner as an award duly executed and filed by the parties; and the Clerk shall indorse the recommendation accordingly. We want that, Mr. Chairman, because the award has a greater scope and power than an industrial agreement. We agree with the clauses down to subsection (c) of clause 11. This clause, the council think, should be left as it is in the Act. It means a lot of work where there is a federation. Subsection (c) in the amending Bill reads, "As to section 107, subsection (2) : by inserting before the words ' in manner following ' the words ' of the union o'' of each of the unions concerned'; by omitting from paragraph (a) the words 'in the case of an industrial union'; by omitting the word 'and' after the word 'minutes' in the same paragraph; and by omitting paragraph (b)." Clause 107 of the principal Act, paragraph (a) of subsection (2), provides that after the words "in manner following" the reference shall be approved by the union or each of the unions concerned. 7. Will you explain the difference? You ask for the present wording?—We take it by the way this reads that it means that the whole of the members of the union have to be consulted. A ballot has to be taken by the whole of the union before a case can be referred to the Court. As it stands at present the governing bodies can do it. 8. It can be an executive sitting in one town ?—Yes. Of course, we quite understand they would not do it without an expression of opinion from all the unions. I do not think it ever would be done, but it entails a certain amount of expense on the federation, and there is also the great likelihood of the whole thing becoming invalid because in the country towns they are not so well up in the laws, and there might be some flaw in taking the ballot that would make the whole thing invalid. We consider that that subsection and also subsection (b) of the same clause should remain as it is at present in the Act. The other clauses are only machinery clauses, and we approve of them. With regard to paragraph (b), subsection (2) of clause 11, we consider that a very good provision giving three clear days' notice instead of one day in regard to the appointing of assessors. I think that is practically all I desire to draw attention to. The Bill, we consider, is in the right direction. 9. Mr. Fraser.] You have no objection to clause 3?— No, we approve of that. Ihere has been some trouble with the Waterside Workers' Union, and this clause, we believe, has been put in to meet that. 10. This is a provision where the registration of a union is cancelled for the purpose of issuing a fresh certificate, or of a union being registered under a fresh name?— Yes. 11. What is the effect of a union voluntarily cancelling its registration under the Act?— They go out.