XII. OPERATION OF AUSTRALASIAN LEGISLATION.

The following tables set forth the industrial disputes which have occurred in Australia, the number of wage earners involved, and the estimated losses in working days and wages during the years 1913 and 1914:1

Industrial disputes in the Commonwealth, classified according to industrial groups, 1913 and 1914.

Industrial disputes in each State and Territory-Comparative particulars for

in wages:

1914. 1913.

1 Official Yearbooks of the Commonwealths of Australia and New Zealand.

£170

£348

£208,468 £32,596 £37,684 £1,029 £5,615 £434 £600 £1,675

£500,475 £288,101

Boards authorized and constituted, awards, determinations, and agreements in force Dec. 31, 1914.

2 In New South Wales_21_boards were dissolved owing to alterations in the sectional arrangement of industries and callings. In Victoria 1 board was superseded by 3 boards. In Queensland, authorization for 1 board was subsequently rescinded.

3 In allition, 5 awards and determinations had been made, but had not come into operation on the 31st of December, 1914. Of that number 4 were in Queensland (including 2 which were suspended pending the hearing of appeals), and 1 in Victoria. The figures are exclusive of awards and determinations which had expired by effluxion of time, and had not been renewed on the 31st of December, 1914.

4 Including 1 award made by the industrial court under section 7 of the industrial peace act, 1912, for an industry not under an industrial board.

5 Including 7 awards made by the industrial court.

6 Including an in lustrial agreement declared by the industrial court, under section 40 of the industrial arbitration act 1912, to be a common rule for the timber industry in the southwest industrial division. 7 Not available.

Of 337 disputes in 1914 only 29 were settled by the machinery of State or Federal industrial acts. A majority were by private negotiation. Wage earners lost £850,000 through strikes during 1914 and 1915, according to the Commonwealth statistician. In 1915, according to the report of the secretary of labor, New Zealand had one woolen-mill strike, involving 233 operatives, and six strikes of steamship and wharf labor.

OPERATION OF THE NEW ZEALAND LAW.1

The following statement shows in a summary form the cases which came before the arbitration court and conciliation councils of New Zealand during the fiscal year ended March 31, 1915:

Industrial agreements_

Recommendations of conciliation councils_
Awards of arbitration court___

Enforcement of awards (cases conducted by labor department).
Cases under the workers' compensation act__.

Cases.

34

93

71

4

65

A total of 330 cases for the enforcement of awards were also brought before magistrates during the same fiscal year. For the same year the number of industrial disputes brought to the attention of the conciliation commissioners was 101. Of this number 61 were settled by mutual agreement, 23 were partly adjusted, and 17 were wholly referred to the court of arbitration. These facts are set forth in tabular form below:

Industrial disputes dealt with by conciliation commissioners and councils during the year ended Mar. 31, 1915.

As to strikes, the following is a summary of strikes in New Zealand from the inception of the industrial conciliation and arbitration act (1894) to March 31, 1915:

Number of strikes coming within scope of the act_.

Number of strikes outside the act--

Total number of strikes__

Number of disputes included in total which may be classed as trivial or unimportant

Men fully successful in (cases).

Employers successful in (cases).

Compromise effected in (cases).

Average duration of all strikes (trivial cases not included) (days).
Total number of strikers (trivial cases not included) -

Total amount of fines inflicted on strikers__

Total amount collected to date----.

53

95

2148

52

27

85

333

32

17, 317

£1,933

£1, 549

Only five lockouts have occurred since the New Zealand legislation was put into operation.

1 The data as to the operation of the New Zealand laws have been compiled from the New Zealand Year Book for 1915 and preceding years.

2 Of this total, 31 strikes were of slaughtermen, consisting of two separate sympathetic disputes, one in 1906-7 and the other in 1912-13, spread over practically the whole of the Dominion. Six were within the scope of the act and 25 outside it.

3 In three other cases the employers were not involved.

XIII. TEXT OF AUSTRALASIAN LAWS.

The complete text of existing legislation in Australasian countries is given in the succeeding pages.

COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA.

THE COMMONWEALTH CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION ACT, 1904-1915.

AN ACT Relating to conciliation and arbitration for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of any one State.

PART I. INTRODUCTORY.

SHORT TITLE.

SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the Commonwealth conciliation and arbitration act, 1904-1915.

OBJECTS OF ACT.

SEC. 2. The chief objects of this act are-

I. To prevent lockouts and strikes in relation to industrial disputes.

II. To constitute a Commonwealth court of conciliation and arbitration having jurisdiction for the prevention and settlement of industrial disputes.

III. To provide for the exercise of the jurisdiction of the court by conciliation with a view to amicable agreement between the parties.

IV. In default of amicable agreement between the parties, to provide for the exercise of the jurisdiction of the court by equitable award.

V. To enable States to refer industrial disputes to the court, and to permit the working of the court and of State industrial authorities in aid of each other. VI. To facilitate and encourage the organization of representative bodies of employers and of employees and the submission of industrial disputes to the court by organizations, and to permit representative bodies of employers and of employees to be declared organizations for the purposes of this act.

VII. To provide for the making and enforcement of industrial agreements between employers and employees in relation to industrial disputes.

DEFINITIONS.

SEC. 4. In this act, except where otherwise clearly intended

"Association" means any trade or other union, or branch of any union, or any association or body composed of or representative of employers or employees, or for furthering or protecting the interests of employers or employees.

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Employer" means any employer in any industry.

Employee" means any employee in any industry, and includes any person whose usual occupation is that of employee in any industry.

"Industrial agreement means any industrial agreement made pursuant to

this act.

"Industrial dispute means an industrial dispute extending beyond the limits of any one State and includes

(I) Any dispute as to industrial matters, and

(II) Any dispute in relation to employment in an industry carried on by or under the control of the Commonwealth or a State, or any public authority constituted under the Commonwealth or a State, and

(III) Any threatened or impending or probable industrial dispute. "Industrial matters" includes all matters relating to work, pay, wages, reward, hours, privileges, rights, or duties of employers or employees, or the mode, terms, and conditions of employment or nonemployment; and in particular, but without limiting the general scope of this definition, includes all matters pertaining to the relations of employers and employees, and the employment, preferential employment, dismissal, or nonemployment of any particular persons, or of persons of any particular sex or age, or being or not being members of any organization, association, or body, and any claim arising under an industrial agreement, and includes all questions of what is fair and right in

relation to any industrial matter having regard to the interests of the persons immediately concerned and of society as a whole.

“Industry " includes

(a) Any business, trade, manufacture, undertaking, or calling of employers. on land or water.

(b) Any calling, service, employment, handicraft, or industrial occupation o avocation of employees, on land or water; and

(c) A branch of an industry and a group of industries.

"Lockout" includes the closing of a place or part of a place of employment, or the total or partial suspension of work by an employer, with a view to compel his employees, or to aid another employer in compelling his employees to accept any term or condition of employment.

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Organization" means any organization registered pursuant to this act, and so far as applicable it also includes any proclaimed organization to which the Governor General declares this act to apply.

"Registrar" means the industrial registrar or a deputy industrial registrar appointed under this act.

"Registry" includes District Registry.

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Special magistrate" means a magistrate appointed by that name under the law of a State.

"State industrial authority means any board or court of conciliation or arbitration, or tribunal body or persons, having authority under any State act to exercise any power of conciliation or arbitration with reference to industrial disputes within the limits of the State; or any special board constituted under any State act relating to factories or such other State board or court as is prescribed.

"Strike" includes the total or partial cessation of work by employees, acting in combination, as a means of enforcing compliance with demands made by them or other employees on employers.

"The Court means the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration constituted pursuant to this act.

"The president" means the president of the court.

PENALTY.

SEC. 5. When any person is convicted of an offense against any provision of this act for which a pecuniary penalty is provided, the court before which he is convicted may direct that the defendant shall not continue or repeat the offense under pain of imprisonment, and if thereafter the defendant continues or repeats the offense, he shall be liable, in addition to the pecuniary penalty for the offense, to imprisonment for any period not exceeding three months.

PART II. PROHIBITION OF LOCKOUTS AND STRIKES IN RELATION TO INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES.

PENALTY FOR LOCKOUT OR STRIKE.

SEC. 6. (1) No person or organization shall, on account of any industrial dispute, do anything in the nature of a lockout or strike, or continue any lockout or strike.

Penalty: One thousand pounds ($4,866.50).

(2) No proceeding for any contravention of this section shall be instituted without the leave of the president.

(3) This section shall not apply to anything proved to have been done for good cause independent of the industrial dispute, but on a prosecution for any contravention of this section the onus of such proof shall lie on the defendants, and in default of such proof, and on proof of the lockout, strike, or continuation, and of the industrial dispute, the lockout, strike, or continuation shall be deemed to have been on account of the industrial dispute.

REJECTING CONDITIONS OF AWARD.

SEC. 7. Where persons, with a view to being associated as employers and employees, respectively, or representatives of such persons, have entered into an industrial agreement with respect to employment, any of such persons who, without reasonable cause or excuse, refuses or neglects to offer or accept employment upon the terms of the agreement, shall be deemed to be guilty of a lockout or strike, as the case may be.