A board could be constituted for an industry on application to the industrial court by- (a) An employer or employers of not less than 20 employees in the same industry. (b) A trade-union registered under the act having a membership of not less than 20 employees in the same industry. (c) An industrial union whose members are such employers or employees. (d) Where there is no trade or industrial union of employees in an industry having membership and registered as aforesaid or where such union fails to make application, then not less than 20 employees in such industry. Each board consisted of a chairman and not less than two (nor more than four) other members as determined by the industrial court, one-half of whom were employers and the other half employees at some time engaged in any industry or group of industries for which the board was constituted. Where the employers or employees consisted chiefly of women and girls, the court could waive this qualification of quondam employment. A board with respect to the industry or group of industries for which it was constituted might (a) Decide all disputes. (b) Fix the lowest price for piecework and the lowest rates of wages payable to employees. (c) Fix the number of hours and the times to be worked in (d) Fix the lowest rates, including allowances as compensation (f) Appoint a tribunal, other than the board itself, for the (g) Determine any industrial matter. (h) Rescind or vary any of its awards. At any time within one month after publication of an award by a board any trade or industrial union or any person bound by the award could apply to the industrial court for leave to appeal to such court. The court alone has power to rescind or vary any award or order made by it, or any award of a board which had been amended by the court, or any award of a board which had been dissolved or was no longer in existence; but where public interests are endangered the Crown might intervene in proceedings and make any necessary representations; or, further, the Crown might at any time after the making of an award apply for leave and appeal to the industrial court. Under the amending act of 1910 proceedings for the enforcement of awards and penalties were made referable to a magistrate's court, and in accordance with this proviso the industrial registrar's court was constituted as a court of petty sessions. The principal points of the industrial arbitration act of 1912 relate to the operations of industrial boards. Provision is made for the registration of industrial unions of employers and employees and also for the cancellation of registration by request or by determination of the court. Unions of employees may make industrial agreements with employers or with any other industrial union, such agreements to be filed and to be binding for five years. In the constitution of the court of industrial arbitration, provision was made for the appointment of an additional judge and of a deputy, and for the constitution of industrial boards of two or four members, equally representing employers and employees, with a chairman appointed by the minister. Complementary to the industrial disputes act, 1908, and its amendments, the clerical workers' act, 1910, was passed to enable the constitution of a tribunal to fix a minimum wage for persons engaged in clerical work, as difficulty was experienced in applying the machinery of the industrial disputes act as to wages board to work of this nature, which, moreover, was not an industry or calling scheduled under the act. The clerical workers' act provides that, on application to the industrial court by any employer of not less than 10 clerks or by not less than 10 clerks in the same or similar employment, the court may (1) Fix the minimum wages and rates for overtime payable to clerks, such minimum to be a real minimum, based on the wage which, in the court's opinion, should be paid to(a) The lowest grade of efficient clerical labor, if it does not classify such labor; or (b) The lowest grade of efficient labor in each class, if it classifies such labor. The classification is determinable by age, experience, qualification, nature of employment, or in any other way practical, expedient, and just. (2) Provide specially for aged, infirm, or slow workers. The provisions of the industrial disputes act, 1908, were applicable for the making and enforcing of awards, which would be binding for three years. No tribunal has been constituted under this act, which remains supplementary to the industrial arbitration act, 1912; nor have any proceedings whatever been taken under its provisions. DEVELOPMENT OF JURISDICTION OF WAGE TRIBUNALS. The industrial arbitration act, 1901, aimed at the determination of disputes referred to it rather than at the constitution of a regulative tribunal. The jurisdiction of the court of arbitration extended to all industries except domestic service, and its awards applied without limitation of area throughout the State. The industrial disputes act, 1908, aimed at the constitution of wages boards to determine the conditions which should govern employment in specified industries. Boards could be constituted for industries or occupations or local sections of industries or for any division or combination of employees in industries, as might be judged expedient by the court. In practice, boards were constituted for industries, but employees were associated according to trades, to materials worked in, or to goods made, with the result that there were boards for trades, for business, and for industries or associations of trade-all with exemptions for certain classes of employees or employers. Under the industrial arbitration act, 1912, the powers of the court and of its subsidiary tribunals are not limited to the relationships of employment. The range of industries and callings is defined by schedule, and boards may be constituted for any industry or calling or for division or combination in such industry or calling. In practice, old boards have been reestablished so far as is consistent with the conditions of the act. Thus a material distinction between the wages-board system as operative under the industrial disputes acts, 1908-1910, and the industrial boards, provided under the industrial arbitration act, 1912, lies in the grouping of allied industries under one chairman and in the arrangement of such boards more upon the basis of craft or calling than of industry, the ultimate aim being the maintenance of some 28 subsidiary arbitration courts, each having power to deal with a group of allied industries, but subject to the general control of the court of industrial arbitration, which in its supreme direction will coordinate the work of the minor courts. FUNCTIONS OF INDUSTRIAL BOARDS. The powers of the boards in making awards include (a) Fixing the lowest prices for work done by employees, and the lowest rates of wages payable to employees, other than aged, infirm, or slow workers; (b) Fixing the number of hours and the times to be worked in order to entitle employees to the wages so fixed; (c) Fixing the lowest rates for overtime and holidays and other special work, including allowances as compensation for overtime, holidays, or other special work; (d) Fixing the number or proportionate number of apprentices and improvers and the lowest prices and rates payable to them; (e) Determining any industrial matter; (f) Rescinding or varying any award made in respect of any of the industries or callings for which it has been constituted; (g) Declaring that preference of employment shall be given to members of any industrial union of employees over other persons offering their labor at the same time, other things being equal; provided that where any declaration giving such preference of employment has been made in favor of an industrial union of employees such declaration shall be canceled by the court of arbitration if at any time such union, or any substantial number of its members, takes part in a strike or instigates or aids any other person in a strike; and if any lesser number takes part in a strike, or instigates or aids any other persons in a strike, such court may suspend such declaration for such period as to it may seem just. Where an institution carried on wholly or partly for charitable purposes provides for the food, clothing, lodging, or maintenance of any of its employees or any of its inmates who are deemed to be employees, the board in its award as to the wages of such employees or inmates shall make due allowance therefor. The board may exempt such institution from all or any terms of the award where the food, clothing, lodging, and maintenance provided by the institution, together with the money (if any) paid by the institution to such employees or inmates as wages are at least equal in value to the value of the labor of such employees or inmates. Awards are binding for a maximum period of three years on all persons engaged in the industries or callings and within the locality covered. Appeal lies to the court, but the pendency of an appeal does not suspend the operation of the award. Proceedings before a board may be commenced by— (a) Reference to the board by the court or the minister; or PROCEDURE IN FIXING MINIMUM WAGE. 1. The court of industrial arbitration recommends the establishment of a board. 2. The minister establishes the board. 3. Minister or court of industrial arbitration refers matter to board, or employers or an industrial union makes application to board. 4. The board shall make investigation in such manner as it thinks fit, and may conduct proceedings, having power to call witnesses and demand records. 5. The board may make an award fixing minimum time and piece rates of wages, the hours of labor, the minimum rates for overtime and holidays, the proportionate number of apprentices and improvers and the minimum rates for them, etc. 6. The award of the board is signed by the chairman and forwarded to the registrar, who forthwith publishes it in the Gazette and notifies the parties. Every award takes effect upon publication. 7. Within 30 days of publication of award application may be made to the industrial court, with its consent, for variation or amendment of the award or for a rehearing. 8. If the board refuses to make any award, any of the parties may, within 14 days of such refusal, make application to the industrial court to make an award. 9. On such application, or upon its own initiative, the industrial court may confirm, vary, or rescind the award appealed from, or make a new award. (An appeal does not suspend an award.) STATISTICS OF BOARDS AND AWARDS.1 From February, 1902, to July, 1908, the court of industrial arbitration made 89 awards. From July, 1908, to April, 1912, 213 wages boards under the industrial disputes acts, 1908-1910, issued 430 awards. During the four years ended June, 1912, the transactions of the industrial court in regard to boards and awards were as follows. 1 The remainder of this section to page 145 is from the Official Year Book of New South Wales, 1913, p. 923 et seq. OPERATIONS OF THE INDUSTRIAL COURT IN EACH OF THE YEARS 1909 TO 1912. 1 The figures for this year can not be used for comparative purposes, as under the system of the 1912 act (operating from April, 1912) the court, on its own motion, and without application to it, recommends the constitution of boards. 2 Until Apr. 17. The operations of the year ended June, 1913, are subject to the industrial arbitration act, 1912, which was operative from April 18, 1912. The transactions for the year ended June 30, 1913, were as follows: On June 30, 1913, the number of boards in existence, including those under the 1908 act, was 196, in addition to one special board. The number of awards of boards for the year was 113, while 33 awards were varied. The awards of the court numbered 6 and variations and amendments 35. INDUSTRIAL AGREEMENTS. Trade-unions were empowered under the industrial arbitration act, 1901, to make written agreements with employers in regard to any industrial matters, the practice of collective bargaining, which had been followed by well-organized unions for years, then first receiving statutory sanction. Agreements relating to any industrial matter could be made by an industrial union with another industrial union or with an employer, and when filed were binding between the parties. Rescissions and variations of agreements also had to be made in writing and duly filed. . Between 1901 and 1908, 28 industrial agreements were filed, of which 11 were subsequently extended as common rules of the industry concerned. The validity of this procedure being questioned, the high court of Australia decided in December, 1904, that it was a condition precedent to the exercise of the power of the court of arbitration to declare a common rule, that there should be in existence an award, order, or direction made by that court in pursuance of a bearing or determination upon a reference under the act. In November, 1905, the court of arbitration declared, by judgment, that the court had no power to make an award, unless a dispute had been initiated and referred to the court for determination. Thus an agreement was not convertible into an award for the purpose of making it a basis for a common rule. Under the industrial disputes act, 1908, |