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Queensland: Strikes £50 ($243.33), lockouts £1,000 ($4,866.50), unless notice of intention given to registrar and secret ballot taken in favor. In the case of public utilities compulsory conference also must have proved abortive.

South Australia: Penalty £500 ($2,433.25) or imprisonment 3 months.

Tasmania: Penalty for strike or lockout on account of any matter in respect to which a board has made a determination, for an organization, £500 ($2,433.25), for an individual £20 ($97.34).

Western Australia: Employer or industrial union, £100 ($486.65); other cases, £10 ($48.67).

Commonwealth of Australia: Penalty, £1,000 ($4,866.50).

New Zealand: Penalty-Employer, maximum fine of £500 ($2,433.25); employee, £25 ($121.66) unless 14 days' notice is given in writing.

Victoria: None.

New South Wales:

SPECIAL PROVISIONS FOR CONCILIATION.

Special commissioner.

Three conciliation committees for colliery districts.
Registered agreements.

Queensland:

Compulsory conference.

Registered agreements.

South Australia:

Compulsory conference.

Industrial court.

Registered agreements.

Tasmania: None.

Western Australia:

Compulsory conference.

Registered agreements.

Commonwealth of Australia:

Compulsory conference.

Court may temporarily refer to conciliation committee, registered agreements. New Zealand:

Council of conciliation, with 3 commissioners.

All industrial disputes must be referred to council before they can come before the arbitration court.

OPERATIONS UNDER WAGES BOARDS AND ARBITRATION LAWS.

The grounds usually alleged by the employers in seeking awards or determinations are that their business is hampered by "unfair” competitors, who pay only a sweating wage. Employees allege that they are sweated, or are entitled to an increase in their wages by reason of the prosperity of the trade in which they are engaged or because of an increase in the cost of living.

In Australia and New Zealand the "living wage" is usually accepted as the basis in wage determinations and awards, and above that various rates are fixed for the several occupations coming under the jurisdiction of a board, according to skill. In a number of the States the law gives a definition of the living wage for the guidance of the board or court.1

1 For Victoria see p. 220; New South Wales, pp. 146-148; South Australia, pp. 165, 166; Tasmania, pp. 166, 167; Western Australia, p. 167. See also M. B. Hammond, Judicial interpretation of the minimum wage in Australia, American Economic Review, June, 1913.

In New South Wales there were on April 30, 1914, 208 industrial boards in existence. Awards of boards and of the court in force numbered 260, of which 65 were awards of the industrial court varying previous awards of boards.

In Victoria there were on April 30, 1914, 131 wages boards in existence, affecting about 150,000 employees. The number of determinations in force was 129. All the boards authorized, with the exception of three, had met for the purpose of fixing wages, hours, etc. The court of industrial appeals in Victoria had heard 12 appeals from determinations of wages boards. In one case the decision was upheld; in 10 cases decisions were reversed or amended; in one case the board, unable to come to a determination, referred the matter to the court, which exercised its power of fixing a proper wage where the average wage paid by employers did not afford a living wage. Of these decisions three were in force on April 30, 1914, the others having been superseded by amended determinations. The court also heard an appeal for modification of its determination with respect to a trade, and decided to modify such determination by reducing the working hours and increasing the wages in certain cases.

The number of industrial boards authorized in Queensland since the acts came into force was on April 30, 1914, 92. The number of employees affected by awards in force at that date is not available, but the number affected by awards in effect on June 30, 1914, was given as 90,000.1 In 76 cases awards were in force, but 4 had been varied on appeal to the industrial court. Under the industrial peace act, 1912, all wages boards established continued in existence, and their determinations were recognized. In South Australia there were on April 30, 1914, 51 trades under boards, with about 25,000 employees. Fifty-four determinations were in force, including six made by the industrial court, in lieu of wages boards, on the minister for industry reporting the inability to appoint boards as authorized or the failure of the constituted boards to discharge the duties required under their appointment. In Western Australia awards had been made for 36 industrial unions, but only 18 remained in force on April 30, 1914; 19 expired between December 4, 1912, and the end of 1913, and had not been reviewed by the court. at the latter date. The wages-board system was inaugurated in Tasmania in 1911. Up to April 30, 1914, resolutions authorizing the appointment of 23 boards were carried in Parliament, and 21 boards had made determinations. Two other boards had commenced work, but had not issued their determinations. The number of Commonwealth conciliation and arbitration court awards in force on April 30, 1914, was 17.

1 Queensland. Department of Labour. Report of the Director of Labour and Chief Inspector of Factories and Shops for the year ended June 30, 1914, p. 2.

BOARDS FOR THE REGULATION OF WAGES AND HOURS AND CONDITIONS OF LABOR AUTHORIZED AND CONSTITUTED, AWARDS, DETERMINATIONS, AND AGREEMENTS IN FORCE, APR. 30, 1914.

[Source: Labour Bulletin of the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics, Melbourne, Australia, No. 5, January-March, 1914, p. 67.]

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2 Boards constituted and subsequently dissolved or superseded. In New South Wales 16 boards were dissolved owing to alteration in the sectional arrangement of industries and callings. In Victoria 1 board was superseded by 3 boards.

In addition, 12 awards and determinations had been made, but had not come into operation on the 30th of April, 1914. Of that number 7 were in Victoria, 4 in Queensland, and 1 in South Australia. The figures are exclusive of awards and determinations which had expired by effluxion of time and had not been renewed on the 30th of April, 1914.

The total number of boards authorized in the five States in which the board system is in force was 525, the total number constituted being 509, of which 17 had been dissolved or superseded. The number of boards in existence at the end of April, 1914, was accordingly 492, of which 422 had either made original awards or determinations, or varied existing awards or determinations, and 70 had not made any award or determination. The difference between the number of boards in existence and the number which had made awards or determinations is accounted for mainly by the fact that in New South Wales a number of boards constituted under the act of 1912 had not made awards, owing to existing awards made under the act of 1908 being still in force. This is shown in the line, "awards and determinations in force," in which it may be seen that the total number in force (including awards made by the Commonwealth and Western Australia arbitration courts) was 575. In New South Wales the number of awards in force includes 90 awards under the act of 1908. This leaves 170 awards in force made by 147 boards under the new act. In explanation of the fact that the num

ber of awards in force in this State under the new act exceeds the number of boards in existence, it may be mentioned that several of the boards have made separate awards for different districts and branches of industry.

Of the total number of awards and determinations in force on April 30, 1914, 82 were the result of awards made by industrial courts (either original or appellate jurisdiction), in addition to the 17 Commonwealth and 18 Western Australia awards.

Of the Commonwealth awards there are seven in connection with the shipping industry and the award affecting postal electricians which apply to each of the six States. There are four awards which apply to five States, two of which apply to four States, one to three States, and two to two States.

The total number of awards, determinations, and agreements in force under the various acts at the end of April, 1914, was 990, comprising 575 awards and determinations and 415 industrial agreements.1

The total number of individual awards and determinations which came into force during 1913 was 270 (264 State and 6 Commonwealth). The number of industrial agreements registered1 during that year was 165 (56 State and 109 Commonwealth), making a total for the Commonwealth of 435 awards, determinations, and agreements, affecting wages, hours, or other conditions, which came into force in 1913. This constitutes no less than 44 per cent of the total number (997) of awards, determinations, and agreements in force at the end of 1913.

EFFECT OF ACTS.

The question whether the operation of the acts has bettered the monetary position of the operative may be answered in the affirmative. Starting from the lowest point, the provision of an absolute minimum wage per week has stopped one form of gross sweating, that of employing apprentices and learners without payment. Another case is that of the "white workers" and dressmakers; with these the lowest grade was the "outworkers," who were pieceworkers. In some branches of the Victorian trade, in 1897, the wages paid to outworkers for all classes of certain goods were only from one-third to one-half the wages paid in the factories for low-class production of the same line of stuff. By working very long hours the outworkers could earn 10s. ($2.43) per week. The average wage of females in the clothing trade in 1897 was 10s. 10d. ($2.63) per week; there were, however, in that year 4,164 females receiving less than £1 ($4.87) per week, and their average was Ss. 8d. ($2.11). It was almost a revolution when a minimum wage of 16s. ($3.89) per week of 48 hours was fixed by the board, when pieceworkers' rates were

1 Including agreements under section 24 of the Commonwealth conciliation and arbitration act and under section 7 of the Queensland industrial peace act, 1912.

fixed to insure a similar minimum, and when outworkers were placed on the level of pieceworkers. Many employers refused to continue to give out work and took the workers into the factory on time work. The wages boards have since fixed the minimum wage per week in the industries mentioned to be: Dressmakers, 21s. 6d. ($5.23); shirt workers, 22s. 6d. ($5.47); and underclothing makers, 20s. ($4.87). As a result, it has been found by special investigation made in November, 1912, in regard to wages in manufacturing industries, that the average wages for all female workers in Victoria engaged at dressmaking and millinery was 17s. 11d. ($4.36), and for shirt workers, white workers (underclothing), etc., 19s. 1d. ($4.64).1

The period since the beginning of minimum-wage legislation in New Zealand and Australia has been a period of steady growth of industry, not checked, so far as is apparent, by the effect of wage regulation. In New Zealand since 1894, the date of the conciliation and arbitration act, the reports of the Department of Labor have each year shown an increase in the number of factories, and an increase in the number of factory employees has been recorded in each year except two, the increase to 1913 amounting to 193 per cent.2 In Victoria an increase both in number of factories and of factory employees has been recorded each year since 1896, the increase in employees between 1896 and 1913 amounting to 171 per cent. In New South Wales the increase in the number of persons employed in manufacturing between 1901, the date of the first wage-regulating law, and 1912 was 74 per cent (62 per cent for males and 135 per cent for females).*

3

The extent to which wage changes are effected by wages-board determinations, by court awards, and by other methods may be seen from the following record for the year 1913:

.

METHODS BY WHICH CHANGES OF WAGES WERE EFFECTED IN THE VARIOUS AUSTRALIAN STATES DURING 1913.5

[Source: Commonwealth of Australia, Bureau of Census and Statistics. Labour and Industrial Branch. Report No. 5. December, 1914, pp. 68 and 69.]

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1 See also page 131.

2 Twenty-third Annual Report of the New Zealand Department of Labor, 1914, p. 7.

3 Report of the Victoria Chief Inspector of Factories and Shops for the year ended Dec. 31, 1913, p. 5. 4 Official Yearbook of New South Wales, 1913, p. 889.

5 In this table an industrial award or agreement under the Commonwealth conciliation and arbitration act is counted as one change only, although such award or agreement may be operative in more than one State.

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