Labour policy—false and true

by Lynden Livingston Macassey

These facts show the results which have attended the efforts of the Ministry of Labour, acting in tactful co-operation with the employers and employed in various industries, to set up Joint Industrial Councils.

Industry’s Own Conciliation Machinery

A unique feature of industrial evolution in the United Kingdom has been the establishment of permanent voluntary Conciliation Boards in very many industries, by agreement between employers and workpeople, unsupported by legal enactment, and depending solely for their success on the goodwill of the parties. Such Boards have existed for many years past. The Board established in the Nottingham glove and hosiery industry in 1860 is probably the first example of permanent machinery in any industry for the systematic treatment of labour disputes. There is a large number of Conciliation Boards in existence. The value of Conciliation Boards (as of Joint Industrial Councils) depends on their ability to prevent stoppages of work rather than on power to settle strikes or lock-outs which may have already taken place. In most cases, the rules of Conciliation Boards provide that no stoppage of work shall be permitted pending consideration of the difference by the Conciliation Board—in some cases, the rules state that, if a stoppage of work has occurred, the Board will refuse to discuss the matter until work has been resumed. The membership of a Board consists usually of equal numbers of representatives of the employers’ associations and of the Trade Unions, parties to the agreement establishing the Board. Accordingly, it not infrequently happens that the two sides of the Board are equally divided on the question brought before them, and the efficacy of a Board as an instrument for composing differences depends largely upon the steps normally adopted for resolving such a dead-lock. The rules of some Conciliation Boards contain a clause providing that, in the event of failure of the parties to effect a settlement of a dispute, application shall be made to the Ministry of Labour for the appointment of an umpire, arbitrator or conciliator. The changed conditions during the war, and the special war-time provisions which were necessary for dealing with disputes, had a remarkable effect upon the forms of conciliation machinery in this country, with the result that, in several important industries (e.g. building), the machinery is under revision.

An illustration of the working of Conciliation Boards is afforded by those in the iron and steel industries, which, although now under reconsideration in some districts, have been in existence for many years. In them the remuneration of the majority of the workpeople is regulated by sliding scales under which wages rise and fall in accordance with prescribed advances or reductions in the selling price of the manufactured article, this price being ascertained by accountants at specified intervals. Although the general adjustment of wages is the main object, other useful functions are exercised in these trades by the Boards. Amendments of the sliding scale, alterations in method of working, fixed rates for special classes of work, variation of prices according to difficulties in manufacture, and other similar questions have come under the consideration of the Boards. The Conciliation Boards in the manufactured iron and steel trades show a great similarity in constitution and procedure. They are composed, not of representatives of employers’ and workpeople’s associations, but of one representative of the workpeople and one of the employers from each of the works affiliated to the Board. Their methods of procedure are alike in affording opportunities for the parties to a dispute to arrive at a settlement by themselves, the services of the Board not being sought until other means have failed. Their rules stipulate that individual causes of complaint must first be discussed between the aggrieved workmen and the employer or his representative. In all cases, except that of the South Wales Iron and Steel Wages Board, the rules provide that, failing a settlement, the question shall then be discussed between the workman, accompanied by his Board representative, and the employer or his representative. In the case of some of the Boards, questions which have passed this stage without a settlement are referred to a Standing Committee, and it is only on the failure of this Committee to effect a settlement, that matters are brought before the Board itself.

For many years the boot and shoe industry has been covered by a series of Local Conciliation Boards existing in all the centres of the industry—questions affecting the industry as a whole being dealt with at National Joint Conferences presided over by an independent Chairman appointed by the Ministry of Labour. Each Local Board appoints a Committee of Inquiry consisting of two manufacturers and two workmen; in case of disagreement, each side of the Board elects an Arbitrator to whom is remitted for arbitration any dispute referred to the Board and which the Board is unable to settle. Should the two Arbitrators not agree the questions are referred to an Umpire appointed by themselves or by the Ministry of Labour. The rules of the Local Conciliation Boards provide that the procedure to be followed in cases of dispute between an employer and his workmen shall be as follows: (a) the workmen shall first bring the matter before the employer or foreman; (b) should they not be able to agree the representatives of the Employers’ Association and the representatives of the Workmen’s Union shall endeavour to settle the matter in dispute; (c) if these representatives are unable to arrange terms the Secretary of the Board shall forthwith advise the Committee of Inquiry of the dispute; (d) in the event of the Committee of Inquiry being unable to settle the dispute it shall be referred to the Board, and, failing a decision, then to the Umpire or Arbitrators, who shall be asked to give their decision within seven days from the date of hearing. This conciliation scheme is the most important of the few to adopt the system of financial penalties.

In addition to the Conciliation Boards, there is a variety of arrangements which, although not coming within the definition of a Conciliation Board, provide definite procedure for the consideration and settlement of differences. Two examples may be given: the highly organized cotton industry has not adopted conciliation board procedure, but the “Brooklands” Agreement, signed in 1893, at the termination of the great contest, provided for many years machinery for settlement of disputes in the spinning branch of the industry. This Agreement has now been superseded by new provisions for avoidance of disputes. As regards other sections of the industry, the principal agreement is that existing between the North and North-East Lancashire Cotton Spinners and Manufacturers’ Association and the Northern Counties’ Textile Trades Federation. Under this agreement, the procedure is similar to that adopted in the case of the Brooklands Agreement and provides for a meeting of representatives of employers and operatives in the branch of trade affected; if no settlement is arrived at, the dispute is to be brought before a joint meeting of the members of the Employers’ Association and the Amalgamated Association of Trade Unions formed in the section concerned; if this meeting fails to effect a settlement, then the matter is to come before a joint meeting of representatives of the Manufacturers’ Association and the Northern Counties’ Federation. Until all these steps have been taken and have failed, no strike or lock-out notices are to be given. An important feature is a provision that, in cases of stoppages of work, meetings of the representatives of the signatories shall be held at intervals of four weeks in Manchester until the dispute has been settled.

Similarly, Conciliation Boards have not been adopted in the engineering trades. The principal agency for conciliation in these trades is that afforded by the “Terms of Settlement” signed in 1898 on the termination of the great dispute which had commenced in the previous year. This agreement, revised in 1907, provides, inter alia, for the discussion of grievances in the first instance by employers and workpeople or their representatives. Should a settlement not be effected by this method, a local conference of employers’ and workpeople’s associations may then be called to consider the matter, and if the question still remains unsettled, it can be referred to a central conference between the Executive Board of the Employers’ Federation and the Executives of the Trade Unions signatory to the agreement. No stoppage of work is permissible until this procedure has been fully carried out. An agreement dated May 20, 1919, amplified the previous agreements by the recognition of shop stewards and the institution of Works’ Committees.

This voluntary machinery (i.e. permanent voluntary conciliation boards and recognized procedure for discussion) covers a number of the principal trades of the country, such as building, coal mining, iron and steel, engineering, shipbuilding, cotton, boots and shoes. Before the war, there were some other industries of considerable importance in which Conciliation Boards or other permanent machinery did not exist, presumably owing to lack of organization of the parties, e.g. dockers, carters, seamen, agricultural workers. This has to some extent been remedied during and since the war.

State Conciliation Machinery

Supplementary to the Whitley Councils, voluntary conciliation boards and similar procedure, which are responsible for the settlement of the bulk of the differences that arise, there exists the State machinery—on the one hand, the Industrial Court; on the other hand, the Trade Boards for poorly organized trades. The Industrial Courts Act, 1919 (which for practical purposes embodies the Conciliation Act, 1896), defines the Government’s powers of intervention in industrial disputes, such intervention being necessary in cases where the joint machinery is not adequate or where the joint machinery has failed to effect a settlement. The Act sets up a permanent Court of Arbitration,[11] to which recourse can be had by parties to industrial disputes if both parties to the dispute consent. Although permanent provision for voluntary arbitration is thus made by the establishment of the Industrial Court, it has been the policy of the Ministry of Labour, if not always the practice of the Cabinet, that trade disputes should be settled as far as possible by negotiation between Employers’ Associations and Trade Unions. When this fails or a Joint Industrial Council, or a Conciliation Board cannot arrive at an agreement, the Industrial Court is an independent authoritative tribunal to which such differences can be referred.