§ Mr. CHADWICKasked the Minister of Labour what is now being done to utilise the machinery of the Industrial Court in settling labour disputes; and if he can give some indication of its activities during the past year?
§ Sir R. HORNEThe Industrial Court established by the Industrial Courts Act, which received the Royal Assent on November 20th, 1919, has been duly set up. The President of the Court is Sir William Mackenzie, K.B.E., and the permanent members are Mr. F. H. McLeod, C.B. (Chairman), and Mr. J. McKie Bryce, chosen to represent the point of view of the employers, and Mr. D. C Cummings, C.B.E., and Mr. F. S. Button, chosen to represent the view of employés, together with two women members, Miss Violet Markham and Miss Cecile Matheson. The services of other members are obtainable to meet exceptional pressure of work. The Court is a standing arbitration tribunal, the provision of which was one of the recommendations of the Committee on Relations between Employers and Employees, better known as the Whitley Committee. It is the desire of the Government that trade disputes should be settled as far as possible by negotiation between employers' associations and trade unions. Where, however, agreement is impossible, recourse can be had to the Industrial Court provided that the consent of both parties to the dispute is forthcoming. One of the advantages of reference to a standing court is that the experience of the members of the Court in dealing with difficulties in other trades is placed at the disposal of the parties to a particular dispute.
Since November 20th, 208 differences have been referred to the Court. These cases have been heard mostly in London, but the Court has also sat in Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and elsewhere, in its ordinary form by which three members of the Court—a chairman, a representative of employers and a representative of employés—constitute the Court; while a certain number of cases have been dealt with in different parts of the country by single members of the Court. The differences have dealt mainly with wages, but 473W many other industrial matters have come before the Court. The Court has settled the general wages arrangements for the following trades:—
- The Scottish building trade,
- Gas undertakings throughout Great Britain,
- The spelter trade,
- The clay industry,
- The bobbin and shuttle making industry,
- The seed crushing and oil milling industry,
- The organ building trade,
and the wages of women employed in railway shops.
The Court has at present before it claims for national increases of wages in the engineering, shipbuilding and explosives trades, together with the wages of railway shopmen.
As far as I am in a position to judge, the Court appears to have commended itself both to employers and employés. It is recognised to be an impartial and independent tribunal, and I think that it has already served, and will continue to serve, a most useful purpose in the national life.