MINIMUM-WAGE LEGISLATION IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW

ZEALAND.1

INTRODUCTION.

The models and the experience upon which all of the minimum-wage legislation in Great Britain and the United States are based are to be found in the history of the movement in Australia (in Victoria, especially) and New Zealand since the introduction of the system in those countries, in Victoria in 1896 and in New Zealand in 1894. Two systems based on different principles exist in Australia and New Zealand for the regulation of wages and conditions of employment. A wages-board system exists in Victoria and Tasmania, and an industrial arbitration-court system in New Zealand and Western Australia. In New South Wales and, since 1912, in Queensland and South Australia the two systems are combined, wages or industrial boards as well as industrial arbitration courts forming a part of the system.

Under the wages-board system in Victoria the board determinations may be reviewed by the court of industrial appeals. In Tasmania an appeal may be made to the supreme court: Under the mixed system in existence in New South Wales the industrial boards are under the control of the industrial court, and the awards of the industrial boards may be reviewed by the court. A similar method is followed in Queensland and South Australia. There is also an arbitration court of the Commonwealth of Australia, which has power to deal with wages. The power of the Commonwealth court, however, is limited to matters extending beyond the limits of a single State.

The chief aims of the wages-board system are to regulate wages, hours, and conditions of employment by the decision of a wages board or compulsory conference (called a special board) of representatives of employers and employees, presided over by a neutral chairman. A determination of this board, unless disapproved by the court on review, applies compulsorily to the entire industry and area for which the board was created. The wages board is usually brought into existence for any specified industry or group of industries by petition or application, followed by authorization in a resolution of Parliament. Under the industrial arbitration court system, the chief purpose of which is the prevention and settlement of industrial dis

1 This section is based largely upon a summary given in the Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, No. 7, 1914, pp. 920, et seq.

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putes, an industry does not come under review until a dispute has actually arisen. Most of the acts, however, have given the president of the court power to summon a compulsory conference. The scope of the arbitration court's authority is even broader than that of the wages boards, applying to any industrial matters.

WAGES-BOARD SYSTEM.

The wages-board system was introduced in Victoria by the factories and shops act of 1896. The original bill made provision only for the regulation of the wages of women and children, but it was afterwards amended in Parliament to extend the system to adult employees of both sexes.

The act of 1896 made provision for the regulation of wages in six sweated trades only. By an act of 1900 the operations of the law were extended to include all persons employed, either inside or outside a factory or workroom, in any trade usually carried on therein. The act of 1907 extended the system to trades and businesses not connected in any way with factories, making provision for the appointment of wages boards for metropolitan shop employees, carters and drivers, and persons employed in connection with buildings or quarrying, or the preparation of firewood for sale, or the distribution of coal or coke. The act of 1909 extended the system to the mining industry, and those of 1910 extended the operation of the act to the shires.

Originally the wages board was elected, but the difficulty of compiling electoral rolls led to the adoption of the simpler system of nomination, which has proved satisfactory.

The board fixes the wages and hours of work and may limit the number of improvers who may be employed (usually by prescribing one to a certain number of journeymen employed). The board fixes the wages of apprentices and improvers according to age, sex, and experience, and may fix a graduated scale of rates calculated on the same basis. Apprentices bound for less than three years are improvers unless the minister sanctions the shorter term of apprenticeship on account of previous experience in the trade. The minister may sanction the employment of an improver over 21 years of age at a rate proportionate to his experience. Workers in the clothing trade must be paid piece rates. Manufacturers may, by leave of the board, fix their own piece rates if calculated upon the average wages of time workers as fixed by the board. Licenses for 12 months to work at a fixed rate lower than the minimum rate may be granted by the chief inspector of factories to persons unable to obtain employment by reason of age, slowness, or infirmity. Such licenses are renewable.

Penalties are fixed for the direct or indirect violation of determinations, the violation being ascertained by examination of the records of wages which are required to be kept.

The court of industrial appeals has power to review the determinations of the boards.

In Tasmania the wages-board system was introduced by the act of 1910 (January 13, 1911) and came into operation March 31, 1911. The experience, therefore, is limited.

South Australia enacted the wages-board system in 1900, 1904, and 1906, but the first-named act was rendered inoperative owing to the failure of Parliament to enact the regulations necessary for carrying it into effect. The act of 1904 revived the wages-board system respecting women and children in white-goods trades. The action of this statute was paralyzed by a decision, the effect of which was to prevent a graduated scale of wages, such as fixed by the Victorian boards. The necessity for some protection to the persons intended to be benefited by these statutes was urged in the annual reports of the chief inspector of factories, but until 1906 without effect. Many employers, however, voluntarily complied with the board's determinations during the period when, because of the failure of the law, they were without legal force. The system was brought into full operation by the act of 1906, which preceded the Victorian act of 1907 in extending the system to other trades, and was of a wider scope than the Victorian act. In New South Wales industrial boards were introduced under the industrial disputes act, 1908, the arbitration-court system having been in existence from 1901 to that date. The act of 1912 introduced the mixed system of industrial boards and an industrial court.

Wages boards were introduced in Queensland under the wages boards act of 1908 and this act with the amending acts continued in force until repealed and replaced by the industrial peace act, 1912, which came into effect January 1, 1913. This act, while embodying the principal provisions of the wages boards acts, provided for the establishment of an industrial court of appeals. All boards established under the repealed acts continued in existence and their determinations were recognized as awards under the new act.

The various steps and method in the procedure in fixing wages in Victoria are briefly summarized in the following statement:

PROCEDURE IN FIXING MINIMUM WAGE.

1. A resolution of Parliament authorizes one or more special boards for a trade or group of trades.

2. The governor in council establishes the boards.

3. The board may, on its own initiative, make investigation and a determination fixing minimum time and piece rates of wages, maximum hours of labor, minimum rates for overtime and holidays, the proportionate number of apprentices and improvers, and the minimum rates for them, etc.

4. The determination of the board is signed by the chairman and published in the Government Gazette and comes into force at a date fixed by the board, but not within 30 days of the determination.

5. The determination may be suspended, by order of the governor in council, for not exceeding six months, whereupon the board must forthwith reconsider and amend or adhere to its determination. If it adheres to its determination the suspension is revoked by an order effective not later than 14 days.

6. The determination may be brought before the industrial court on appeal by a majority of the representatives of employers or a majority of the representatives of employees on the board or by any employer or group of employers who employ not less than 25 per cent of the total workers in the trade or by 25 per cent or more of the workers in the trade. The minister may at any time refer a determination to the court.

7. In case of appeal or reference the governor in council shall appoint two persons upon nomination of representives of employers and employees respectively on the special board and these two persons with the president of the court (one of the judges of the supreme court) shall constitute the industrial court.

8. The determination of the court shall be final and without appeal and may not be reviewed or altered by a board without the leave of the court.

9. The determination of the court shall be forwarded to the minister by the registrar and shall be published in the Government Gazette.

10. The validity of a determination of any board may be challenged before the supreme court.

ARBITRATION-COURT SYSTEM.

The first Australian act whereby one party to a labor dispute could be summoned before and presumably made subject, as in proceedings of an ordinary court of law, to the order of a court was the South Australian act of 1894. The principles of this act have been largely followed in other States, but it proved abortive in operation in its own State and in many respects was superseded by the wages-board system which was brought into operation by the act of 1906. Western Australia passed an arbitration act in 1900, repealed and reenacted with amendments in 1902 and 1909, the whole being consolidated in the industrial arbitration act of 1912. The court system was adopted in New South Wales in 1901, and various changes having been subsequently introduced, a consolidation was made in 1912, the system including industrial boards as well as an arbitration court. Queensland, which had been under a wages-board system since 1908, introduced the combined system under the industrial peace act of 1912. The Commonwealth principal act, passed in 1904, applies only to industrial disputes extending beyond the limits of a single State.

INDUSTRIAL UNIONS.

The arbitration act, framed to encourage a system of collective bargaining, to facilitate applications to the court, and to assure to the worker such benefits as may be derived from organization, virtually creates the industrial union. This, except in New South Wales and Western Australia, has been quite distinct from the trade-union; it is not a voluntary association, but rather an organization necessary for the administration of the law. The New South Wales act of 1901 required all trade associations to register as "industrial unions," pre

scribing the separation of industrial and benefit funds and enforcing strict and proper management, the industrial funds being available in payment of penalties incurred for breaches of the arbitration act. Industrial unions (or "organizations" as they are styled in the Commonwealth act) may be formed by employers or employees. They must be registered and must file annual returns of membership and funds. Before unions of employers are registered, there must be in their employment a minimum number of employees. In New South Wales and Western Australia the minimum is 50; under the Commonwealth act 100. Unions of employees must, in Western Australia, have a membership of 15; by the Commonwealth act a membership of 100 is required. The union rules must contain provisions for the direction of business, and, in particular, for regulating the method of making applications or agreements authorized by the acts. In Western Australia rules must be inserted prohibiting the election to the union of men who are not employers or workers in the trade and the use of union funds for the support of strikes and lockouts; a rule must also be inserted requiring the unions to make use of the act.

INDUSTRIAL AGREEMENTS.

Employers and employees may settle disputes and conditions of labor by industrial agreements which are registered and have the force of awards. Such agreements are enforceable against the parties and such other organizations and persons as signify their intention to be bound by them.

POWERS OF COURT.

Failing agreement, disputes are settled by reference to the court. In the Commonwealth this consists of a judge of the high court. The court may (and on the application of an original party to the dispute must) appoint two assessors at any stage of the dispute. In the States the president of the tribunal (usually a judge of the supreme court) is assisted by members (the number varying under the various acts) chosen by and appointed to represent the employers and employees, respectively.

Cases are brought before the court by either employers or employees. The consent of a majority of a union voting at a specially summoned meeting is necessary to the institution of a case; the Commonwealth act requires the certificate of the registrar that it is a proper case for consideration. The powers of the court are more numerous and varied than those of the Victorian boards; it hears and makes awards upon all matters concerning employers and employees. The breadth of its jurisdiction may be gathered from the Commonwealth definition of "industrial matters,” viz:

all matters relating to work, pay, wages, reward, hours, privileges, rights, or duties of employers or employees, or the mode, terms, and