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.

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'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.

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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.

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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.

ACTS OF ORGANIZATIONS.

SEC. 8. Any organization of employers or employees which, for the purpose of enforcing compliance with the demands of any employers or employees, orders its members to refuse to offer or accept employment, shall be deemed to be guilty of a lockout or strike, as the case may be.

DISMISSING EMPLOYEES.

SEC. 9. (1) An employer shall not dismiss an employee, or injure him in his employment, or alter his position to his prejudice, by reason of the circumstance that the employee

(a) Is an officer or member of an organization, or of an association that has applied to be registered as an organization; or

(b) Is entitled to the benefit of an industrial agreement or award; or

(c) Has appeared as a witness or has given any evidence in a proceeding under this act.

Penalty: Fifty pounds ($243.33).

LEAVING EMPLOYMENT.

(2) An employee shall not cease work in the service of his employer by reason of the circumstance that the employer

(a) Is an officer or member of an organization or of an association that has applied to be registered as an organization; or

(b) Is entitled to the benefit of an industrial agreement or award; or

(c) Has appeared as a witness or has given any evidence in a proceeding under this act.

Penalty Twenty-five pounds ($121.66).

(3) No proceeding for an offense against this section shall be instituted without leave of the president or the registrar.

(4) In any proceeding for an offense against this section, if all the facts and circumstances constituting the offense other than the reason for the defendant's action are proved, it shall lie upon the defendant to prove that he was not actuated by the reason alleged in the charge.

(5) The attorney general may direct that the whole or any part of any penalty recovered under this section may be paid to the person injured by the offense.

PART III. THE COMMONWEALTH COURT OF CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION.

Division 1. The constitution of the court.

CONSTITUTION OF COURT.

SEC. 11. There shall be a Commonwealth court of conciliation and arbitration, which shall be a court of record, and shall consist of a president.

PRESIDENT.

SEC. 12. (1) The president shall be appointed by the Governor General from among the justices of the high court. He shall be entitled to hold office during good behavior for seven years, and shall be eligible for reappointment, and shall not be liable to removal except on addresses to the Governor General from both houses of the Parliament during one session thereof praying for his removal on the ground of proved misbehavior or incapacity.

(2) In the event of the period of office of the president expiring during the continuance of any investigation on which the court has entered, the Governor General may continue him in office for such time as may be necessary in order to enable him to take part in the completion of the matter.

TRAVELING EXPENSES OF PRESIDENT.

SEC. 13. The president shall be paid no other salary in respect of his services under this act than his salary as justice of the high court, and shall be paid such traveling expenses as are prescribed.

DEPUTY PRESIDENT.

SEC. 14. The president may, by instrument under his hand, appoint any justice of the high court or judge of the supreme court of a State, to be his deputy in any part of the Commonwealth, and in that capacity to exercise, during the pleasure of the president, such powers and functions of the President as he thinks fit to assign to such deputy; but the appointment of a deputy shall not affect the exercise by the president himself of any power or function.

SPECIAL DEPUTIES.

SEC. 140. Whenever the president is out of the Commonwealth, or is for any reason unable to appoint a deputy, the Governor General may appoint any justice of the high court or judge of the supreme court of a State to be the deputy of the president in any part of the Commonwealth, and in that capacity to exercise during the pleasure of the Governor General such powers and functions of the president as the Governor General thinks fit to assign to such deputy; but the appointment of a deputy shall not affect the exercise by the president himself of any power or function.

OATH OF PRESIDENT OR DEPUTY.

SEC. 15. The president or deputy president shall, before proceeding to discharge the duties of his office, take before a justice of the high court or a judge of the supreme court of a State an oath or affirmation in the form in schedule A.

Division 2. The jurisdiction of the president and of the court.

DUTY OF PRESIDENT.

SEC. 16. The president shall be charged with the duty of endeavoring at all times by all lawful ways and means to reconcile the parties to industrial disputes, and to prevent and settle industrial disputes, whether or not the court has cognizance of them, in all cases in which it appears to him that his mediation is desirable in the public interest.

CONFERENCES.

SEC. 16a. (1) The president may, whenever in his opinion it is desirable for the purpose of preventing or settling an industrial dispute, summon any person to attend, at a time and place specified in the summons, at a conference presided over by himself.

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(1a) Any person " in the last preceding subsection includes not only persons engaged in or connected with an industrial dispute, but also any person engaged in or connected with any dispute relating to industrial matters (whether extending beyond the limits of a State or not), and related in any way tɔ an industrial dispute; and also includes any person, whether connected with an industrial dispute or not, whose presence at the conference the president thinks is likely to conduce to the prevention or settlement of an industrial dispute. (2) Any person so summoned shall attend the conference and continue his attendance thereat as directed by the president. Penalty: Five hundred pounds ($243.33).

(3) The conference may be held partly or wholly in public or in private, at the discretion of the president.

REVIEW OF REGISTRAR'S DECISIONS.

SEC. 17. The president may review, annul, rescind, or vary any act or decision of the registrar in any manner which he thinks fit.

COSTS.

SEC. 17a. The court or president may order any party to any application to pay to any other party such costs and expenses, including expenses of witnesses, as it or he thinks fit, but so that no costs shall be allowed for the services of any counsel, solicitor, or agent.

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JURISDICTION.

SEC. 18. The court shall have jurisdiction to prevent and settle, pursuant to this act, all industrial disputes.

Division 3. Cognizance of disputes and ordinary procedure.

MATTERS COGNIZABLE.

SEC. 19. The court shall have cognizance, for purposes of prevention and settlement, of the following industrial disputes:

(a) All industrial disputes which are certified to the court by the registrar as proper to be dealt with by it in the public interest;

(b) All industrial disputes which are submitted to the court by an organization by plaint;

(c) All industrial disputes with which any State industrial authority, or the governor in council of a State in which there is no State industrial authority, requests the court to deal; and

(d) All industrial disputes as to which the president has held a conference under section 16a of this act, and as to which no agreement has been reached, and which the president has thereupon referred to the court.

PRESUMPTION AS TO PLAINT.

SEC. 19a. A plaint by which an industrial dispute is submitted to the court shall be deemed to have been submitted by the organization by which it purports to have been submitted unless evidence is given on behalf of that organization that the plaint was not in fact submitted by that organization.

DISPUTES IN STATE COURTS.

SEC. 20. If it appears to the court that any State industrial authority is dealing or about to deal with an industrial dispute, the court may in the prescribed manner direct that authority not to deal with the dispute; and thereupon the authority shall cease to proceed in the matter of the dispute, which shall be dealt with by the court.

CERTIFICATE OF REGISTRAR.

SEC. 21. A certificate by the registrar that a specified industrial dispute exists, or is threatened or impending or probable, as an industrial dispute extending beyond the limits of any one State, shall be prima facie evidence that the fact is as stated.

EXISTENCE OF A DISPUTE.

SEC. 21aa. (1) When an alleged industrial dispute is submitted to the court

(a) In the case of a dispute submitted to the court by plaint-the complainant or respondent organization or association; and

(b) In any other case-any party to the proceeding or the registrar may apply to the high court for a decision on the question whether the dispute or any part thereof exists, or is threatened or impending or probable, as an industrial dispute extending beyond the limits of any one State or on any question of law arising in relation to the dispute or to the proceeding or to any award or order of the court.

(2) The high court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the question.

(3) The jurisdiction of the high court under this section may be exercised by any justice of the high court sitting in chambers.

(4) The decision of the justice on the question shall be final and conclusive, and shall not be subject to any appeal to the high court in its appellate jurisdiction, and shall not be challenged, appealed against, reviewed, quashed, or called in question, or be subject to prohibition mandamus or injunction, in any court on any account whatever.

SEC. 21a. A certificate of the registrar that any specified persons were at any time members of any specified organization shall (subject to review by