ORIGIN AND ADMINISTRATION

LABOUR, DEPARTMENT OF

by Noel Spencer Woods, M.A., DIP.ED., DIP.SOC.SC., Chief Research Officer, Department of Labour, Wellington.

ORIGIN AND ADMINISTRATION

In his book State Experiments in New Zealand, W. Pember Reeves records the origin of the Department of Labour as follows: “In May 1891 a deputation from Wellington awaited on the Premier to urge greater measures of relief to the city unemployed. During the discussion it was suggested that the State should use its officials to furnish reports of employment openings in country districts. As a result of this suggestion the Labour Department began its work in June 1891”. Its first name, however, was the Bureau of Industries and it had a staff of one man, E. Tregear. Its name was changed to Department of Labour in 1892 when Pember Reeves was appointed the first Minister of Labour, and Tregear first Secretary of Labour. In 1893 the first Labour Department Act was passed defining the general duties and powers of the Department. It was to administer the labour laws, acquire and disseminate knowledge of occupations with a view to improving relations between employers and workers, and collect and publish information on industries and rates of wages.

The Labour Department Act was re-enacted in 1908 and again in 1954. Between these two dates some major changes took place in the scope and activities of the Department. Between 1930 and 1936 unemployment was handled by an independent Unemployment Board using the offices of the Department as registration bureaus. In 1936 the operations of the Board were transferred to an Employment Division of the Labour Department whose employment activities were strengthened and reconstituted as a specialised service known as the State Placement Service. With the outbreak of war in 1939 these employment activities shrank to negligible proportions and finally lapsed when a special division of the war-time National Service Department took over the control of all industrial manpower. At the end of the war, the Employment Act 1945 set up a National Employment Service to take over employment activities from the National Service Department as from 1 April 1946. The Labour Department had throughout continued to administer the Factories Act, Shops and Offices Act, Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act, and other industrial legislation. During the later war years and for a short time afterwards the Labour Department also administered trade-training schemes for demobilised servicemen. On 1 April 1947 the National Employment Service amalgamated with the Department of Labour, which resumed its full range of administration of matters concerning people at work.

The Labour Department Act 1954 was a new Act rather than a review and consolidation of the 1908 measure. The 1954 Act sets out the general functions of the Department as the promotion and maintenance of full employment, safe and healthy working conditions, good relationships between employers and workers, and the proper fulfilment by employers, workers, and other persons of obligations placed upon them by awards and industrial agreements and by the Acts, regulations, and orders administered by the Department. The Department is specifically empowered, inter alia, to provide a complete employment service; to make inspections; to collect and publish information on employment, unemployment, and wages; to make surveys and forecasts of employment; to establish, maintain, and operate hostels; to provide a home aid service; and to arrange for the selection, transport, and accommodation of immigrants. A Schedule to the Act lists 21 Acts which the Department is required to administer. In addition to labour legislation, the Department also administers legislation on weights and measures, on tenancy, and on national service registration.

Edward Tregear was Secretary of Labour from 1892 to 1912. Other holders of the office have been J. Lomas, 1912–13; F. W. Rowley, 1913–29; W. Newton, 1929–32; G. C. Godfrey, 1932–35; J. S. Hunter, 1935–39; H. E. Moston, 1939–46; H. L. Bockett, 1946–64; and H. Parsonage, 1965–. There have been considerably more changes in the office of Minister of Labour, those who have held office being W. P. Reeves, 1892–96; R. J. Seddon, 1896–1906; W. Hall-Jones, 1906; J. A. Millar, 1906–09; A. W. Hogg, 1909; J. A. Millar, 1909–12; G. Laurenson, 1912; W. F. Massey, 1912–20; W. H. Herries, 1920–21; G. J. Anderson, 1921–28; W. A. Veitch, 1928–30; S. G. Smith, 1930–31; A. Hamilton, 1931–35; H. T. Armstrong, 1935–38; P. C. Webb, 1938–46; J. O'Brien, 1946; A. McLagan, 1946–49; W. Sullivan, 1949–57; J. K. McAlpine, 1957; F. Hackett, 1957–60; T. P. Shand, 1960–.

Employment

Statistics covering all economic activities are available in five-yearly census reports both by industries and by main occupational classes. Census classifications have changed considerably and a fully comparable series of statistics is not available. The following table based on census reports and using the most nearly comparable groupings nevertheless gives a broad indication of the way in which distribution of employment between different sectors of economic activity has changed.

Activity in Which Engaged Percentage of Actively Engaged Persons in Each Activity
1896 1911 1926 1936 1951 1961
Professional and administrative 6·5 7·2 9·8 10·6 15·2 15·2
Domestic and personal service 9·8 9·8 7·5 8·1 4·2 5·1
Commercial and finance 11·4 14·5 14·1 15·2 16·4 18·2
Transport and communication 5·7 8·0 9·9 10·6 10·5 10·0
Industrial 27·8 29·4 22·6 24·3 33·5 35·9
Agricultural and pastoral 28·3 24·2 20·3 22·1 17·4 13·6
Mining and quarrying 6·3 3·3 1·4 1·7 1·0 0·8
Other primary 1·4 1·3 2·3 2·0 1·0 0·8
Residual groups (including ill-defined, etc.) 2·8 2·3 12·1 5·4 0·8 0·4

Over this period the census labour force increased as follows:

1896 294,625
1911 454,117
1926 551,997
1936 644,448
1951 740,496
1956 816,852
1961 895,363

Since 1947 comprehensive statistics of employment for most of the main fields of economic activity have been available from half-yearly returns furnished to the Labour Department by establishments employing two or more persons. Farming, fishing, hunting, trapping, and domestic employment in private households are the main exclusions. The statistics show the numbers actively engaged by industries, number of vacancies, turnover of labour, hours worked, and earnings. They are published in the Labour Department's quarterly Labour and Employment Gazette and in summary form in the Monthly Abstract of Statistics and the N.Z. Official Yearbook.

In April 1961, of a total of some 892,000 persons actively engaged in economic activities, 648,294 were covered as full-time employees or working proprietors in the half-yearly returns. The following information is taken from the April 1965 returns:

Full-time employees Males 486,024
Females 200,414
Part-time employees Males 20,386
Females 34,669
Vacancies Males 14,218
Females 4,720
Average weekly hours Ordinary time 37·6
(all employees) Overtime 3·1
Average hourly earnings Ordinary time 9s.7·5d.
(all employees) Overtime 13s.4·4d.

An article in the Labour and Employment Gazette of February 1965 analysed the regional distribution of employment. The employment districts of Whangarei, Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Rotorua, and Gisborne (roughly the northern half of the North Island) had some 41 per cent of New Zealand's labour force. The remainder of the labour force was almost equally divided between the rest of the North Island and the South Island.

Unemployment

Early records of unemployment in New Zealand are sketchy. Between 1865 and 1870 there were many references to unemployment, the position being at its worst in 1868. From 1870, with Vogel's vigorous public works' programme, the position improved, although even in the boom years of the 1870s with their strong demand for immigrant labour, there were problems of winter unemployment.

Economic depression again appeared in the late 1880s and by September 1888 it was estimated that there were several thousand persons unemployed throughout the country. At this time (and, indeed, until 1930) the only Government measure available for reducing unemployment was the provision of relief work for a limited number of men on public works and other Government projects. In 1888 the number of men on special unemployment relief works reached 727. After 1888 conditions again improved and by 1890 no men were employed on relief works. In June 1891 the Bureau of Industries (later, Labour Department) was established for the sole purpose of assisting unemployed persons to find work. In 1900, and in the years immediately following, there were increasingly frequent references to shortages of labour although a problem of seasonal unemployment continued. The Labour Department's records show that between 1892 and 1905 it placed some 2,000 to 3,000 unemployed workers in employment each year.

Depressed conditions accompanied by increasing unemployment occurred again in the years 1906 to 1911, the Labour Department's figure for unemployed workers assisted into employment in each year rising to over 10,000 for 1909 and remaining above 5,000 until after 1916 when wartime conditions began to reflect in labour shortages. Apart from a slight increase in 1920 and again in 1922, unemployment remained fairly constant and of relatively small dimensions from 1917 until 1926. For most of these years the number of persons assisted into employment by the Labour Department remained below 3,000, with a winter peak of less than 1,000 registered unemployed.

In 1927, however, the total of persons assisted into employment rose sharply to over 10,000, with a winter peak of 2,928 registered unemployed. Throughout the following summer the number of registered unemployed remained above 1,200 and reached a peak of 3,414 in June 1928. In October 1928 the Government, troubled by the increasing unemployment, set up a Committee to report on the problem. The Committee made its first report in August 1929 (see Appendix to Journals of the House of Representatives, H. 11B, 1929) just after registered unemployment had reached a new winter peak of 3,896. Until the end of September 1929 the usual downward movement set in, but was abruptly upset following a Government announcement in September that work would be offered to all unemployed registered with the Labour Department. The announcement induced some 4,000 additional registrations and brought unemployment to a fresh peak of 6,264 in mid October. The uptake of seasonal activities and the expansion of relief works reduced this figure to 1,242 in December 1929, but the cost of relief works had risen from some £256,000 in 1926–27 to some £915,000 in 1928–29.

In January 1930 the Committee on Unemployment made its second report to Government. Its two reports represented the first comprehensive studies of the unemployment problem. A considerable body of information was brought together although relatively little attention was given to the relationship between crests of unemployment and falling overseas prices for farm products. The Committee examined various measures which might create additional employment. As a result of the Committee's recommendations, the Unemployment Act 1930 was enacted. All male persons 20 years of age and over were required to register and, with some exceptions, to pay a levy of £1 10s. a year, payable quarterly. The proceeds of this levy went into an Unemployment Fund which was also subsidised from the Consolidated Fund. An Unemployment Board was appointed to assist in the administration of the Act and in particular to make arrangements with employers for the employment of unemployed persons, to promote the growth of industries, and to make recommendations for the sustenance allowances to be paid to unemployed persons. In conjunction with the Labour Department the Board was to operate labour exchanges known as Labour Bureaus. Initially, the maximum rates of sustenance were £1 1s. per week for each contributor to the Fund, plus 17s. 6d. per week for a dependent wife and 4s. per week each for dependent children.

In 1931 the Unemployment Act was amended. The levy was reduced to 5s. per quarter supplemented by a tax on earnings at a rate of 3d. in each pound, increased in 1932 to 1s. in each pound. The Unemployment Board was reconstituted and other changes were made in financial and administrative procedures. The levy was later abolished.

At the end of 1930 there was a sudden collapse in prices of exports, particularly wool, accompanied by an equally sudden and quite unforeseen increase in unemployment, viz.:

Date Number Registered as Unemployed Date Number Registered as Unemployed
18 Aug 1930 5,639 26 Jan 1931 18,607
22 Sep 1930 6,099 16 Feb 1931 22,842
24 Oct 1930 6,055 23 Feb 1931 27,662
24 Nov 1930 7,402 16 Mar 1931 31,678
29 Dec 1930 13,096 30 Mar 1931 38,028

By September 1932 registered unemployed and persons on relief work exceeded 73,000. This figure did not again come below 50,000 until September 1936. By the middle of 1939 it had been reduced to below 20,000.

At the end of March 1931 there were 24,941 registered unemployed then being provided with part-time relief work and a further 13,087 without any work. At this time two relief work schemes were operating. Under the first of these schemes local authorities were subsidised to undertake maintenance, improvement, and development work which they would not otherwise have embarked upon – fencing, ditching, drainage works, land clearing, river-protection works, street formation, etc. – the Board subsidising such work on the basis of £2 for 1. The second scheme, on a pound-for-pound basis of subsidy, enabled private individuals to put in hand works mainly of similar types which would not otherwise have been undertaken. A third scheme of assistance had also operated as a stopgap for a brief period before Christmas 1930. From March 1931 onwards various further schemes were introduced, some as temporary measures and others of greater permanency. A main emphasis in the early schemes was on subsidised farm employment (on such work as bushfelling, scrub cutting, drainage, etc.), on afforestation, land reclamation, and farm settlement. In addition, various public works were commenced or expanded to provide employment with camp accommodation, mainly for single men, and a scheme for subsidising building and construction activities was introduced. By the end of 1933 there were 29,870 men in full-time employment subsidised by the Unemployment Board, and 37,870 men in receipt of part-time relief work or on sustenance allowances. The numbers of unemployed were reduced slowly in the following years, but the pattern of handling unemployment remained substantially the same until 1936. (See Reports of the Unemployment Board, H. 35, 1931, and following years.)

Following the change of Government at the end of 1935, the Unemployment Act was replaced by the Employment Promotion Act 1936, the Unemployment Board was abolished, the handling of unemployment was placed in the hands of a State Placement Service operating within the Labour Department, and sustenance and relief work rates were increased substantially. All relief camps were converted to standard works at standard full-time rates of pay. On 1 April 1939 the provisions of the Social Security Act 1938 became operative and unemployment benefit was placed on a new basis within the social security scheme as a payment which the worker was entitled to of right where he fulfilled the eligibility requirements. Registration for employment and the placement of workers in employment remained functions of the Labour Department.

During the war period, 1939–45, unemployment disappeared as a significant problem. In 1946 a National Employment Service was established under the Employment Act 1945 with the principal function of promoting and maintaining full employment. A year later this organisation was amalgamated with the Department of Labour. Throughout the postwar years the main feature of the employment situation has been acute labour shortage, particularly of skilled workers, rather than unemployment. From 1948 to 1955 the monthly average of disengaged persons registered for employment did not exceed 100. From 1955 to 1959 the figure increased until it reached 1,656 in July 1959. Since then it has again fallen. Even the peak figure in 1959 represented a negligible percentage of unemployment.

Apprenticeship

The Master and Apprentice Act 1865 was one of the first pieces of New Zealand labour legislation. It made provision for any child over 12 years of age to be indentured in any art, trade, or manual occupation for a period of up to five years. The Act was particularly designed to facilitate the indenturing of children from orphanages and other charitable institutions. An enabling rather than a protective measure, it made no provision for the prescription of terms and conditions or the supervision of apprenticeship contracts. A Royal Commission of 1890 found little use being made of the Act. Following the passage of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894, conditions to govern apprenticeships began to be written into awards and industrial agreements. Contracts of apprenticeship made under the Master and Apprentice Act (which was re-enacted in 1908) and subject to conditions prescribed under the I. C. and A. Act became more popular, and until 1923 apprenticeship was governed through the conjoint use of the two Acts – the one to establish and safeguard the contract; the other to prescribe the conditions to be fulfilled within the contract.

In 1923, following a conference on apprenticeship, the Apprentices Act 1923 was passed. Provisions as to apprenticeships were no longer to be incorporated in awards and industrial agreements, but the Court of Arbitration was empowered to make special orders governing apprenticeships in particular industries or trades. Control over apprenticeship rested with the Court, but registration and enforcement functions were in the hands of a Registrar of Apprentices and District Registrars, and general supervision was substantially delegated from the Court to district apprenticeship committees. The Master and Apprentice Act 1908 and the Apprentices Act 1923 continued to govern apprenticeship in New Zealand until 1948.

In 1944 the Government set up a Commission of Inquiry into Apprenticeship and Related Matters which reported in November of the same year, although it was not until 1946 that legislative action was taken on the findings. (The Commission's report was published in the Appendix to Journals of the House, 1945, H. 11B .) Provision was made for a Commissioner of Apprenticeship, for a New Zealand Apprenticeship Committee for each industry or group of allied trades, for district commissioners, and for the continuation of local apprenticeship committees. The Court of Arbitration was empowered to make apprenticeship orders only for New Zealand as a whole on the recommendations of New Zealand apprenticeship committees which consist of representatives of employers and workers, together with a person conversant with technical education and the Commissioner of Apprenticeship as chairman. The legislation was consolidated in 1948 into the current Apprentices Act.

Local apprenticeship committees are constituted like New Zealand committees, but with the district commissioner or his deputy as chairman. No employer may engage an apprentice without the prior consent of the appropriate local committee which, if need be, will inspect the work place. Local committees deal with complaints from apprentices or employers, and with applications for transfer of apprentices, and for discharge on account of misconduct. Their decisions are subject to appeal to the Arbitration Court.

The New Zealand committees are policy-making bodies. Proposed amendments of apprenticeship orders are often referred by them to local committees for comment before the New Zealand Committee comes to a decision. Most orders have an apprenticeship period of 10,000 hours, with modifications to allow for educational qualifications. It is usual for orders to provide for attendance at technical classes, both during working hours and in the evening. In some industries technical training is concentrated into an annual full-time (“block”) course of three or four weeks' duration.

At 31 March 1965 there were 32 New Zealand committees and 223 local committees in existence. There were 23,684 contracts of apprenticeship then in force and 6,870 new contracts had been registered during the preceding 12 months. During 1965 there were 2,699 apprentices attending day classes, 6,064 attending evening classes, 10,098 attending “block” courses, and 4,624 taking technical correspondence courses.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Enterprises in New Zealand are mostly small in size. Less than 25 per cent of factories, for instance, employ more than 10 persons. In such a situation the relationship between management and workers is usually direct and personal, and disturbed industrial relations are rare. As a general rule the great majority of strikes occur in four industries – coal mines, construction, freezing works, and waterfront – where there are less personal employer-employee relationships, or particularly unpleasant or hazardous conditions, or a high proportion of casual or seasonal employment, or a combination of such factors. The incidence of industrial strife has varied considerably from year to year, but there have been only three occasions on which anything in the nature of a general stoppage of work over a widespread field of activities has occurred – the maritime strike of 1890, the general strike of 1913, and the waterfront strike of 1951. In certain industries there have been some stoppages of special severity, including the nationwide freezing works strikes of 1906, 1912, and 1926, the Waihi strike of 1912, the seamen's strike of 1922, the nationwide coal mines strike of 1932, and the nationwide railways strikes of 1923 and 1950. In over three-quarters of New Zealand's economic activities, strikes are almost unknown and conciliation and arbitration procedures are the recognised means of settling disputes.

From time to time the comment has been made that New Zealand employers' and workers' organisations meet each other only when in dispute and that on those occasions their discussions are limited to the disputed matters. There is no provision for them to meet to discuss the broad problems of industry, to reach a good understanding of the common ground between them, and to formulate joint general policies. Under the Industrial Relations Act 1949, an Industrial Advisory Council was appointed in 1951 comprising national leaders of workers' and employers' organisations for the purpose of discussing such matters, making recommendations for improved industrial relationships, and formulating a common approach to problems of mutual interest. The Council has continued to meet several times a year and has made a number of agreed recommendations on matters such as joint consultation, increased productivity, and incentive schemes. The Act also enables a compulsory conference of the parties to a dispute to be called where a strike is threatened or in progress and concerns a matter which is not amenable to normal conciliation and arbitration procedure.

Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration

The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act was first enacted in 1894. The Act was the political culmination of efforts of trade unions to secure recognised status and to obtain the protection of enforceable minimum wage rates and conditions of employment. In the preceding decade the young and insecure trade union movement in New Zealand had attempted to obtain these things sometimes by negotiation with employers and sometimes by strike action. Direct negotiation with employers had met with little success except where (as with the tailoresses' union in Dunedin) there had been third-party mediation. In 1890 strike action was heavily defeated. Trade unions generally had lost confidence in their own strength when in 1891 a widening of the franchise gave them the opportunity of electing a Government with Liberal-Labour sympathies. At the same time, the community more generally felt concern at the 1890 strikes and wanted some measure which would avoid the continuation of such industrial turbulence. The Act of 1894 recognised industrial unions of workers on the one hand and individual employers or industrial unions of employers on the other as the responsible parties in negotiating wages and other conditions of employment under the Act. They could obtain this recognition by registering under the Act. Once they were so registered, it required them, if they were in dispute with each other, to meet each other in conciliation proceedings and, if they failed to reach agreement, then to submit the matter to arbitration. It made the industrial agreements or awards thus reached enforceable at law. Registration under the Act was voluntary. These basic features of the system have continued unchanged although the Act has been amended on numerous occasions and re-enacted several times. It was last re-enacted in 1954.

After some 70 years of operation, the industrial conciliation and arbitration system has become a firmly accepted – perhaps even a traditional – way of determining minimum wage rates and handling industrial disputes. It has been subject to many criticisms from time to time, and occasionally to heavier sectional attacks, but no suggestion for its abolition has ever succeeded in gaining any significant measure of support from the employers' and workers' organisations, which use the system, or from the community generally. Much of its strength has accrued from the outstanding qualities of the Judges who have presided over the Court and who have succeeded in keeping formality at a minimum, in demonstrating a wide and practical grasp of industrial problems and human relationships, and in winning the confidence of those who appeared before them. The Court has been presided over by the following Judges:

J. S. Williams, 1896–97; J. E. Denniston, 1898; W. B. Edwards, 1898–1900; J. C. Martin, 1900–01; T. Cooper, 1901–03; F. R. Chapman, 1903–06; W. A. Sim, 1907–13; T. W. Stringer, 1914–20; F V. Frazer, 1921–35; E. Page, 1935–37; P. J. O'Regan, 1937–40; A. Tyndall, 1940–65; A. P. Blair, 1965–.

The Court of Arbitration

The Act provides for a Court of Arbitration consisting of a permanently appointed Judge who presides over it and who must be a barrister or solicitor of not less than seven years standing of the Supreme Court, and two nominated members who are appointed for three years in the first instance on the recommendation of industrial unions of employers and of workers respectively. The Act also provides for the appointment of Conciliation Commissioners, of whom there are three. They are appointed for three-yearly terms and are eligible for reappointment. The Act further provides for the appointment of a Registrar of the Court, a Registrar of Industrial Unions, and Clerks of Awards, as well as for certain other appointments.

In addition to the making of awards, the Court of Arbitration is empowered, inter alia, to give interpretations of awards, industrial agreements, and other matters within its jurisdiction; to deal with offences and enforcement under the Act, and to inquire into alleged irregularities in union elections.

Industrial Unions and Associations

The I. C. and A. system is based on the voluntary registration of industrial unions and industrial associations. To be eligible for registration under the Act, a society of employers must have not less than three members and a society of workers either not less than 15 members or not less than 25 per cent of the total number of workers engaged in the industry in the district or locality concerned and with an absolute minimum of not less than five members. An incorporated company may be registered as a union of employers. The members of such a society of employers or workers must be lawfully associated for the purpose of protecting or furthering the interests of employers or workers engaged in a specified industry or related industries. Any such society may apply to the Registrar of Industrial Unions for registration. When registering the society, the Registrar must also record its rules, the Act specifying various matters for which the rules must make provision. Where the rules fail to make provision for such matters, the Registrar may amend them so as to comply with the Act. All subsequent amendments of rules must also be recorded by the Registrar. He may refuse to record a rule or an amendment of a rule which, in his opinion, is in any way unreasonable or oppressive, but such a refusal is subject to a right of appeal to the Court (e.g., Book of Awards, Vol. 54, p. 734; and Vol. 59, p. 475).

Provided an applicant society complies with the requirements of the Act, the Registrar must register it unless there is already an industrial union (of employers or of workers as the case may be) already registered in respect of the same industry in the same industrial district, or unless there had been such a union previously registered whose registration had been cancelled by the Minister of Labour because of a discontinuance of employment by its members causing serious loss and inconvenience (section 198 of the Act gives the Minister this power). In the latter cases the Registrar must secure the concurrence of the Minister before registering the second union. The New Zealand trade union movement has generally viewed this restriction on duplication of unions as a valuable safeguard against the weakening effect of a multiplicity of rival unions. This safeguard against unnecessary duplication operates also in respect of amendments of rules and enables a fairly clear definition of trade union frontiers to be maintained, with overlaps and consequent conflicts between unions kept to a minimum.

For the purposes of the I. C. and A. Act, New Zealand is divided into eight industrial districts, and industrial unions may be registered in respect of a particular locality or localities within the one industrial district, in respect of an industrial district as a whole, in respect of two or more industrial districts as a whole, and in respect of New Zealand as a whole, the North Island as a whole, or the South Island as a whole. The broad principle of these provisions is that a union, to extend beyond one district, must cover the whole of all of the districts in which it operates, but in certain circumstances the Minister may allow exceptions to this – usually to enable some well-established local union to maintain its identity after the registration or extension of another union to cover the district as a whole. The Act also makes provision for unions in the same industry or related industries to join together in industrial associations and be registered as such. Awards and industrial agreements may then be negotiated by the association instead of by the individual unions.

The objects of industrial unions and associations may not go beyond industrial matters, and union funds may not be applied to matters outside the scope of the Act. (See, for example, Book of Awards, Vol. 18, page 1059.)

At December 1964 there were 258 industrial unions of employers with 22,233 members, and 380 industrial unions of workers with 346,338 members registered under the Act. There were also 17 industrial associations of employers and 39 industrial associations of workers. About 42 per cent of all wage and salary earners were subject to awards and industrial agreements.

Rules and Management of Industrial Unions

The rules of an industrial union must include provision for the election and removal of officers and members of the committee of management by secret postal ballot of the financial members or by some near equivalent of this procedure approved by the Registrar. They must set out the powers and duties of the committee and officers, the manner of calling general or special meetings, and their powers and the mode in which industrial agreements and other instruments may be made and executed. They must also provide for the maintenance and purging of a register of members, the control of property and funds, the inspection of the books and the register of members by anyone having an interest in the funds, resignation subject to not more than two weeks' notice, and various other matters. Entrance fees may not exceed 5s. and subscriptions may not exceed a rate of 2s. per week unless a higher rate is adopted on a majority of the votes cast in a secret ballot of financial members. No levy is payable except in accordance with a resolution passed by a majority of the votes cast in a secret ballot of the financial members. Union accounts are subject to audit and a copy of the auditor's certificate must be lodged with the Registrar of Industrial Unions who may, in certain circumstances, require an audit of a union's accounts. Books of account must be kept for at least seven years.

Any 10 financial members of a union, if they claim that there has been an irregularity in connection with an election, may within one month of the completion of the election apply to the Registrar of Industrial Unions for an inquiry by the Court of Arbitration into the matter. In the event of an inquiry being held, the Court has power to set aside the election and order a new one. Any industrial union may request the Registrar to conduct an election, but the great majority of unions prefer to conduct their elections themselves. All ballot papers and other papers connected with a union election must be kept for at least a year.

Awards and Industrial Agreements

Part V of the I. C. and A. Act provides for the making of industrial agreements between industrial unions or industrial associations of workers on the one hand and industrial unions or associations of employers or individual employers on the other hand. An industrial agreement is binding on the parties to the agreement and on every member of any union or association which is a party thereto. (An award is binding on all employers and workers engaged in the industry to which the award relates in the locality or district which it covers.) An industrial agreement may be varied, renewed, or cancelled at any time if all the parties so agree. The parties concerned may reach agreement between themselves without creating a dispute, and such an agreement, to become enforceable under the Act, must be filed with the Clerk of Awards within 30 days. If, however, the parties on one side make claims which the parties on the other side do not accept, a dispute is thereby created and the Act requires the dispute to be referred to a Council of Conciliation convened by a Conciliation Commissioner. In conciliation proceedings the two sides are represented by equal numbers of assessors. The Conciliation Commissioner presides over the meeting but exercises no vote in the proceedings and has no power to determine the dispute which can only be determined by the agreement of the assessors. If the assessors cannot reach complete agreement on all the matters in dispute, the Clerk of Awards must refer the dispute to the Court of Arbitration for hearing and the making of an award. In doing so he may transmit to the Court any partial agreement reached in conciliation although the Court is not in any way bound to take notice of such partial agreement.

In over 75 per cent of cases, however, the parties reach complete agreement in conciliation proceedings. Where complete agreement is reached, it may either be filed with the Clerk of Awards as an industrial agreement or, if the parties agree, it may be referred to the Court and the Court may incorporate the terms of the settlement in an award without any hearing of the dispute. Because of the wider coverage of awards, this latter procedure is the one more usually followed and the majority of awards are based on complete agreement reached in the conciliation proceedings. Where parties who were not original parties to the agreement subsequently become bound by the resulting award, there is provision for them to apply to the Court for a complete or partial exemption from the provisions of the award.

In each award and industrial agreement an expiry date must be specified. No award or industrial agreement may have a term longer than three years and in most cases the term is from one to two years. The provisions of an award or industrial agreement continue in force, however, beyond the expiry date until a new award or agreement is made, except where there is cancellation of the registration of a union concerned. There are some 400 awards and 275 industrial agreements in operation.

Action for breach of an award or industrial agreement may be taken by any of the parties or an Inspector of Awards in a Magistrate's Court or by an inspector in the Court of Arbitration.

Forty-hour Week

Since 1936 the I. C. and A. Act has required that the Court of Arbitration shall fix at not more than 40 the maximum number of hours, exclusive of overtime, to be worked in any one week by any worker bound by the award; further, that it shall endeavour to fix the daily working hours so that no part of the working period falls on a Saturday. There is provision for exceptions to be made if a 40-hour week is impracticable, but the 40-hour five-day week has become almost universal.

Compulsory Unionism

From 1936 to 1961 the Act required every award and industrial agreement to contain a provision making it unlawful for any employer bound thereby to employ or to continue to employ in any position or employment subject to the award or agreement any adult person who was not a member of a union of workers bound by the award or agreement.

(Prior to 1936 the Act permitted the inclusion in awards and industrial agreements of a provision for preference of employment for members of the union so long as there was a member of the union equally qualified to do the work and ready and willing to undertake it.)

In 1961 the Act was amended by removing the compulsory unionism provision and substituting for it two alternatives. Membership of a union would continue to be obligatory if the representatives of the parties in conciliation agreed to the inclusion of a clause making membership of the union a condition of employment, or if more than 50 per cent of the workers in the industry concerned desired such a clause to be inserted in the award. Otherwise a qualified preference clause on the lines of the pre-1936 clauses would be inserted in the award or industrial agreement.

The Act enables any worker who has conscientious objection to union membership to apply for a certificate of exemption from any requirement in an award or industrial agreement requiring him to be a member of a union.

Disputes Committees

The Act provides that an award or industrial agreement may contain provision for the setting up of a disputes committee to handle any dispute which may arise while the award or agreement is in operation, provided that the dispute concerns a matter arising out of or connected with the award or agreement but not specifically dealt with in it. The limitations are important. If an award specifically deals with a matter, the parties are bound by that specific provision and no dispute on the matter can be recognised within the jurisdiction of the Act. On the other hand, if a matter in dispute lies entirely outside the scope of the award, there can be no jurisdiction to deal with the matter under the award. In this latter case, however, the Industrial Relations Act 1949 makes provision for calling a compulsory conference of the parties in certain circumstances. A disputes clause normally provides for a right of appeal to the Court of Arbitration if the disputes committee fails to reach a settlement of the matter.

Strikes and Lockouts

The Act makes it an offence subject to severe penalties for a union or any number of its members bound by an award or industrial agreement to engage in a strike or lockout. The penalties are increased where a strike or lockout takes place without a prior secret ballot on the issue. The definition of a strike includes unauthorised stop-work meetings and the adoption of go-slow tactics. For a stoppage to be a strike or lockout there must be intent either to compel or induce another party to accept demands; or to cause loss or inconvenience; or to incite, aid, abet, instigate, or procure any other strike or lockout; or to assist any other party in compelling or inducing the acceptance of demands.

In recent years New Zealand has been relatively free of industrial disturbances. The Labour and Employment Gazette of May 1965 published figures for working days lost per 1,000 civilian wage and salary earners. These showed that in 1963 Australia lost 175 days, the United Kingdom 79, the U.S.A. 284, Canada 177, and New Zealand 69. In nine of the years from 1952 to 1962 the New Zealand figure was even lower.

It is not usual to proceed for penalties when strikes or lockouts occur. The first consideration is necessarily the restoration of good working relationships between the parties, and legal proceedings are not usually conducive to such an end. It is, however, probable that the provision of penalties acts as a restraint on irresponsible action.

Standard Wage Pronouncements and General Orders

The Court of Arbitration has always had the inherent power to make a pronouncement at any time concerning its intention of generally adopting a specified wage rate as a standard rate for unskilled, semiskilled, or skilled adult-male labour as the case may be.

The I. C. and A. Act, however, gives the Court no power to amend the provisions of an award during its currency except: (a) for the purpose of remedying any defect therein or giving fuller effect thereto; or (b) where all the original parties to the award are desirous that it should be reviewed by the Court. Similarly, industrial agreements may be varied, renewed, or cancelled only by agreement of all the parties thereto. Hence, although the Court may make a standard wage pronouncement, under the I. C. and A. Act it is unable to give effect to such a pronouncement otherwise than by incorporating the standard rate in each new award if and when it is made following the expiry of the current one. Under the I. C. and A. Act, the Court thus has no means of effecting a general, simultaneous, and immediate variation of the minimum wage rates specified in awards and industrial agreements.

When circumstances make general, simultaneous, and immediate variations of wage rates in awards and industrial agreements desirable, the legislature therefore has to give the Court special power to amend them during their currency. The nature of the power so given to the Court has varied from time to time. Where a flat-rate increase or decrease has been desirable, the Court has usually been empowered to make a general Order varying all awards and industrial agreements (with or without exceptions) and it has usually done so in the form of a percentage change. Where it has been desirable that each award or industrial agreement receive individual attention, the Court has been empowered to make a standard wage pronouncement and then to review and amend as it thinks fit each award and industrial agreement. Sometimes the Court has been empowered to use either method at its discretion. Before making a standard wage pronouncement or general order, the Court holds a general hearing in public at which interested parties and expert witnesses are able to set forward evidence and opinions which are relevant to the matter.

In recent years the Court's authority to amend awards and industrial agreements during their currency by means of general orders has been provided in the Economic Stabilisation Regulations of 1953. At present the Court has no such power regarding standard wage pronouncements. Standard wage pronouncements and general orders made by the Court are recorded in Books of Awards as follows (volume and page number): 20/166; 20/403; 21/513; 21/2103; 21/2233; 22/804; 23/129; 23/333; 23/354; 23/631; 23/964; 23/999; 24/179; 24/887; 25/1; 25/47; 25A/800; 31/145; 36/715; 37/1648; 40/1153; 42/258; 45/75; 47/1345; 49/641; 50/667; 51/2; 52/835; 53/1313; 54/1345; 56/1730; 59/842; 62/1284; 64/–.

OTHER NEGOTIATING AND WAGE-FIXING MACHINERY

Over half of the wage and salary earners in New Zealand have their wages and conditions of employment determined by methods which are outside the scope of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1954. The two main groups outside the I. C. and A. Act are Government and agricultural employees.

Government Employees

The Government Railways Act 1949 provides for a Government Railways Industrial Tribunal with power to prescribe salaries and wage rates, hours of work, and other conditions of employment for railway employees.

The Post Office Act 1959 makes provision for a Post Office Staff Tribunal with power to make recommendations to the Postmaster-General who determines wages, salaries, and other conditions of employment for Post Office employees.

The Government Service Tribunal Act 1948 set up a Government Service Tribunal with power to prescribe salaries and wage rates, hours of work, and other conditions of employment for employees of the Public Service.

Certain other groups of Government employees, such as police and armed forces, are provided for separately in the appropriate legislation.

The usual procedure in most fields of Government employment is for negotiations to take place first between the employee organisations and the administrative heads concerned. If agreement is reached, the parties will make a joint approach to the appropriate tribunal or authority for the making of an order embodying the terms agreed upon. Otherwise the claims and counterclaims are referred to the tribunal for hearing and the making of an order.

Historically, the Government has as a general rule followed a policy of keeping Government wages and salaries in line with ruling rates in private enterprise. In recent years, as an aid to this policy, the Labour Department has, from time to time, made sample surveys of ruling rates for selected categories of tradesmen and labourers. (See, for example, Labour and Employment Gazette, August 1964, page 29.)

Agricultural Workers Act of 1962

This Act enables wages and conditions of employment of workers on dairy farms, and in various other classes of agricultural work, to be fixed from time to time by Orders in Council made on the recommendation of the Minister of Labour. Originally the Act related specifically to dairy farms, with provision, however, for extension of its provisions to other classes of agricultural workers. Extension orders are now operative in respect of orchard workers; workers on farms and stations used for the commercial production of wool, meat, or grain; workers in market gardens; and workers employed in tobacco growing and tobacco harvesting. The Act and the orders made under it are administered by the Labour Department.

It is usual for representatives of workers' and employers' organisations concerned to enter into direct negotiations with a view to making an agreed recommendation to the Minister of Labour for the making or amendment of an order. If no such agreement is reached it is then open to any of the parties concerned to bring the matter to the Court for hearing so that the Court may make a recommendation.

Waterfront Industry Act of 1953

This Act provides for a Waterfront Industry Tribunal with power to prescribe by order the terms and conditions of employment for waterside workers. There is also provision for the setting up of National Conciliation Committees to conduct conciliation proceedings on applications concerning two or more ports and for Port Conciliation Committees where one port only is affected. The conciliation proceedings may result in an agreed recommendation to the Tribunal regarding the terms and conditions to be embodied in any order it may make. In the absence of such agreement, the Tribunal will hear the parties before determining its order. The committees and Tribunal also deal with disputes. The orders and decisions of the Tribunal are final and binding.

Labour Disputes Investigation Act of 1913

In 1913, following increased industrial strife and a move by some unions to cancel registrations under the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act as a means of freeing themselves to take strike action, the Government enacted the Labour Disputes Investigation Act as a measure to apply to all societies of workers, registered or not, to all their members not bound by an award or industrial agreement, and to the employers of all such workers. Under the terms of the Act, voluntary agreements negotiated between employers and such societies of workers may be filed with a Clerk of Awards and thus made enforceable in the same manner as industrial agreements under the I. C. and A. Act. Strikes and lockouts are illegal and subject to penalties unless the procedures set out in the Labour Disputes Investigation Act are followed. Whenever an industrial dispute arises outside the scope of the I. C. and A. Act, the society of workers concerned may notify the Minister of Labour in writing of the parties to the dispute and the claims made by the society or its members. On receipt of such a notice, the Minister is required to refer the matter to a Conciliation Commissioner who will endeavour to effect a settlement. Failing settlement by the Commissioner, the Minister may at any time set up a Labour Disputes Committee of from one to three representatives from each side who elect some other person to be their chairman. This committee endeavours to reach a settlement and, failing that, is required to submit a report to the Minister setting out either recommendations by the committee or proposals by each side for settlement of the dispute. The Minister must publish these recommendations or proposals. If the dispute is not settled within 14 days of the first notification to the Minister, the Registrar of Industrial Unions is required to conduct a secret ballot of workers affected on the issue of whether a strike should take place or not, or whether the recommendations for settlement, if any, should be accepted. The result of the ballot must be published; a strike is unlawful if it takes place within seven days of publication of the result of the ballot. There is similar provision for taking a ballot of employers on the issue of a lockout.

The Labour Disputes Investigation Act has never been very widely used, the number of agreements filed under it in recent years varying between nine and 28 each year. It is nevertheless a valuable alternative for unions not desiring to accept the obligations of the I. C. and A. Act. Since 1913 ballots have been necessary on nine occasions and none of these has resulted in a strike or lockout.

The Minimum Wage Act of 1945

This Act makes provision for a minimum wage for all workers of 21 years of age and over. There are some minor exceptions such as persons undergoing training in certain circumstances. The amount of the minimum wage is fixed from time to time by Order in Council. The Minimum Wage Order 1964 fixed the following minimum rates:

  • Males – 5s. 6½d. an hour, £2 4s. 4d. a day, £10 16s. 8d. a week;

  • Females – 3s. 8½d. an hour, £1 9s. 8d. a day, £7 4s. 8d. a week.

The Act, which is administered by the Department of Labour, has over-riding force over any other enactment and over awards, industrial agreements, and contracts of service. As the rates fixed under the Minimum Wage Act are generally somewhat lower than the adult minimum rates in awards and industrial agreements and other instruments, the Act is more important as a protection to workers not covered by such awards, etc. The largest group of such workers is comprised of persons performing domestic service on farms and in private homes generally.

CONTROL OF WORKING CONDITIONS

The first legislative control over working conditions in factories in New Zealand was the Employment of Females Act of 1873 applying to factory employment. This Act dealt with hours of work, holidays, sanitation, and ventilation, but was largely ineffective through lack of enforcement machinery. In 1881 the Employment of Females and Others Act placed further restriction on hours of work and provided for overtime to be paid at penal rates, but this measure also lacked adequate enforcement.

Between 1881 and 1890, economic depression was accompanied by a steady worsening in conditions of employment until, in response to increasing public pressure, the Government set up a Royal Commission in 1890 to inquire into allegations of sweated labour. The Commission recorded a considerable number of cases of exploitation of workers (such as girls working 18 hours a day for 7s. to 8s. a week, a baker working 108 to 112 hours a week for 25s., seven women working in a cellar 12 ft × 8 ft 8 ft), but it did not agree that cases of exploitation were general enough to be described as a “sweating system”.

Following upon the findings of the Royal Commission, the Factories Act 1891 was passed, the first measure to include adequate provision for inspection and enforcement. In the first three months of operation inspectors required improvements and alterations in 913 factories. It was replaced by the Factories Act 1894, which was a more extensive measure. This legislation was last re-enacted in 1946. In 1894 there were 25,851 workers in factories; 1908, 78,625; 1936, 102,275; 1945, 138,600; and 1965, 282,561.

Between 1890 and 1908 there was an extension of legislative control over working conditions (through inspection and enforcement provisions) in shops and offices, mining, shearing, and shipping. Today special legislation also covers other major groups such as agricultural workers, bush workers, and the building and construction industry, while many other classes of workers have special protective provisions in appropriate legislation governing their industries or employment.

The Factories Act of 1946

The Act, which is administered by the Labour Department, defines a factory and requires every factory to be registered with the Department. The Act also provides for the appointment of Inspectors of Factories, who must be qualified by examination and who have rights of entry and authority to take enforcement action. In 1960–64 there were 116 Inspectors of Factories and 20,439 registered factories. The administration of the Act rests on these two bases of registration and inspection. Factories are predominantly small and in 1965 there were only 351 with more than 100 employees. Over 75 per cent of factories employed 10 or less persons.

No boy or girl of under 15 years may be employed in a factory, and no boy or girl of under 16 years may be employed without a certificate of fitness.

On the matter of hours of work, the Factories Act provides that the ordinary hours of work in any factory shall not exceed 40 a week and eight a day (excluding meal times), and that not more than four and one quarter hours may be worked continuously without a break of at least three-quarters of an hour for a meal. There is an exception to this latter provision, the four and one quarter hours being extended to five hours where a worker is allowed a rest period of not less than 10 minutes in every working period of not more than three hours. Time outside the ordinary hours may be worked at penal rates provided that, in the case of female employees, the amount of overtime worked must not exceed a specified amount. Females may not be employed, with some exceptions, particularly in respect of seasonal industries, in a factory between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m., and there are restrictions on the maximum daily and weekly hours they may work. There are no restrictions on overtime work at penal rates by males under the Act, but there may nevertheless be restrictions imposed by the award or industrial agreement. The Act also makes provision for holidays and for payment where work is done on a holiday. Generally, treble time is counted for work done on statutory whole holidays where the worker would be paid ordinary time if not working, and double time is counted for work done on Sundays.

Factory occupiers are prohibited from letting or giving out work of any description to be done by any person elsewhere than in a registered factory unless that person is the holder of an “outworker's licence”. There may not be more than one outworker to every 10 persons employed in the factory. An outworker's licence will only be granted by an Inspector of Factories where he is satisfied that the person to whom the application relates is in necessitous circumstances and for special reasons is unable to work in a factory, and that the working conditions where the work will be done and the remuneration for it are at least equivalent to those prevailing in the factory itself.

The Act lays down extensive general health, welfare, and safety provisions relating to such matters as air space, cleanliness, ventilation, lighting, meal facilities, and canteens, rest rooms, washing and lavatory facilities, provision of first-aid appliances, exits and fire escapes, reporting of accidents, safety requirements, etc. Minimum requirements are stated in the Act, but in most cases there is a discretion vested in the Inspector of Factories to require more than the basic minimum in appropriate circumstances.

For certain industries or processes, special regulations have been made under the Act to deal in greater detail with special conditions or hazards, e.g., The Lead Process Regulations 1950; The Spray Coating Regulations 1962; The Electroplating Regulations 1950; The Abrasive Blasting Regulations 1958; and The Noxious Substances Regulations 1954.

Factories are inspected periodically and also when complaints are received. Where conditions fail to comply with the requirements of the Act or regulations, the Inspector of Factories may serve a requisition on the occupier requiring specified things to be done and setting a time for compliance. Such requisitions may be appealed against in a Magistrate's Court. The Act provides penalties for failure to comply with a requisition and also provides that the registration of a factory may be refused or cancelled if the conditions in that factory do not comply with the Act. There is thus adequate provision for enforcement, but the policy of the Labour Department places main emphasis on education of factory occupiers in the requirements placed upon them and on consultation, advice, and cooperation.

The Machinery Act of 1950

The Machinery Act 1950, which is administered by the Labour Department, replaced the earlier Inspection of Machinery Act 1928, which had been administered by the Marine Department although the latter Department has remained responsible for the inspection of lifts, cranes, boilers, cargo handling gear, winding engines, and steam engines. The 1950 Act brought the inspection of other machinery, wherever it might be and not only in factories, into alignment with the procedures already established under the Factories Act. The separation of statutes was retained because of the much wider scope necessary in the case of machinery.

Inspectors under the Factories Act 1946, Bush Workers Act 1945, Construction Act 1959, Quarries Act 1944, and Coal Mines Act 1925 have all the power of inspectors under the Machinery Act 1950. There is an obligation on manufacturers of machinery to ensure that its dangerous parts are safeguarded, and this obligation is extended to any person who sells it or lets it out on hire. There are restrictions on the employment of women and young persons in working with machinery. Owners of machinery must keep a record of all accidents, and serious accidents must be reported to Inspectors within 48 hours. The Act provides for the making of regulations, and in 1956 the Woodworking Machinery Regulations were made specifying detailed requirements in respect of circular saws, bandsaws, planing machines, shaping machines, sanding machines, power handtools, etc.

Construction Act of 1959

The first legislation governing the safety of workmen engaged on building and construction work was the Scaffolding Inspection Act 1906. It was a short Act, a little over two pages, requiring notification of intention to erect any structure or framework over 16 ft in height, or any swinging stage, for the support of workmen engaged on building work. It provided for the appointment of inspectors with rights of entry and inspection, and enabled regulations to be made specifying minimum safety requirements. This Act was replaced by the Scaffolding and Excavation Act 1922 which reduced the minimum notifiable height of scaffolding to 12 ft and extended coverage to excavations of a depth of 5 ft or more, and to cranes and lifting gear used in construction work. An inspector was empowered to order unsafe work to cease or to brand and destroy unsafe gear; he could also demand that an employer comply with any requirements of regulations made under the Act.

This Act was amended in 1924 and 1948, and in 1951 was extended to engineering construction. At the same time its provisions were widened in respect of health and welfare. Although the obligation rested on the employer to comply with the requirements of the regulations and with directions made by an inspector, the emphasis rested on inspection. The inspector was commonly regarded as the person mainly responsible for seeing that safe conditions existed in the building and construction industry.

This emphasis was greatly changed in the 20-page Construction Act 1959 which replaced the Scaffolding and Excavation Act 1922. The new Act placed responsibility much more clearly upon the employer or his agent – to such an extent that, if the employer is unable to exercise personal supervision on any “notifiable work”, he must appoint a safety supervisor to represent him on the job. A safety supervisor must be a person suitably experienced to carry out the duties and functions specified under the Act, and he must not be overloaded with other duties such as to prevent him from carrying out his functions as safety supervisor. The employer must notify the inspector of the name and address of each safety supervisor he appoints. It is the duty of each safety supervisor to ensure that the safety provisions of the Act and regulations made under it are complied with.

The principal function of safety inspectors under the Construction Act is to provide for the safety and welfare of workmen engaged in construction work, to advise employers and workmen as to the safe practices recommended for the work, to ensure that the provisions of the Act and regulations are complied with, to investigate accidents and generally to take steps to prevent or limit accidents. Inspectors have rights of entry and a wide range of powers.

The range of work covered by the new Act was also further widened to cover virtually every aspect of all work connected with building and construction activities. These activities include such works as road, railway, aerodrome, and harbour works; drainage, irrigation, and river-control works; reticulation of electricity, gas, water, and telephone and telegraph; and earthworks, bridges, dams, tunnels, reclamations, etc.; as well as the erection of buildings and other structures, excavations and site preparation, and the use of any plant, tools, gear, or materials for the purpose of any construction work.

The Construction Regulations 1961 contain extensive detail as to notifiable work, certificates of competency, health and welfare, general safety, scaffolding, excavations, and examinations for inspectors.

In 1964 the estimated total labour force engaged on work covered by the Construction Act was 92,500. The total reported accidents in the construction industry in 1963 was 9,567, of which 32 per cent arose out of the handling of objects, 16 per cent from the use of hand tools, 19 per cent from falls, and 12 per cent out of the use of machinery, leaving 21 per cent unclassified.

The Shops and Offices Act of 1955

The first legislation specifically governing working conditions in shops in New Zealand was the Shops and Shop Assistants Act of 1892. Like much other pre-1894 legislation, it was unsatisfactory through being too general in its few brief provisions and through lacking effective enforcement measures. It was replaced by the Shops and Shop Assistants Act 1894 which was more definite in its requirements and which placed enforcement in the hands of factory inspectors. The 1894 Act limited the weekly hours of women of all ages and of boys under 18 years to 52 hours and limited their daily hours to nine and a half hours, with the exception that on one working day in each week 11½ hours might be worked. Overtime for women and boys was restricted to three hours a day on not more than 40 days each year. All shop assistants were to have a half-day off work on one working day in each week and, in cities, boroughs, and town districts' shops (except fruiterers and some other exempt categories) were to close from 1 p.m. onwards on one working day each week. The Act required adequate sanitation to be provided, and contained other health and welfare provisions. Some of its provisions applied to offices as well as shops.

In 1895 an interesting amendment was effected enabling the Minister of Labour to prescribe a closing hour for shops of 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. on Saturdays where three-fifths or more of the shopkeepers in any locality asked for such a limitation. The Act was frequently amended in succeeding years, amendments being mainly related to shops and more particularly to opening and closing hours and to hours of work. Its application to male workers gradually extended. In 1904 it was consolidated and re-enacted as the Shops and Offices Act 1904. It was re-enacted again in 1908, in 1921–22, and in 1955. Legislative interest in recent years has centred mainly on trading hours and Sunday and after-hours trading.

The 1955 Act defines a shop as any building or place in which goods are kept, exposed, or offered for sale, or in which any part of the business of a shop is conducted. Licensed hotels, restaurants, hair-dressing saloons, auction markets, and automatic-vending machines come within the definition. An office is defined as any building in which any person is employed, directly or indirectly, to do any clerical work in connection with any business carried on therein by the occupier. The clerical work of a factory or shop is excluded if done within the factory or shop.

The Act contains general provisions on safety, health, and welfare which relate to both shops and offices – provisions relating to the storage of dangerous goods, limitations on loads to be carried by employees, safety and safe means of access, fire precautions, cleanliness, air space and ventilation, lighting, heating, sanitary conveniences, washing facilities, seating for employees, and various other matters. It also has a number of general provisions which relate to both shops and offices, such as the requirement to keep a wages and time book, inspection powers of inspectors, and enforcement procedure. Both shops and offices are subject to a 40-hour week but restrictions on overtime provided in the case of shops do not apply to offices, nor do the provisions relating to opening and closing hours of shops apply to offices.

For shop assistants the Act provides a 40-hour five-day week with a limit of eight hours a day except on one day in each week when 11 hours may be worked. There are special restrictions on the hours of work of young persons and on the working of extended hours (i.e., beyond 40) in shops. In any award relating to the employment of shop assistants, the Court of Arbitration is empowered to fix the opening and closing hours of shops. Any shopkeeper, except the occupier of a chemist's shop, may apply to a Shops and Offices Exemptions Tribunal for exemption from closing hours so fixed by the Court. Chemists' shops may be exempted by the Minister of Labour.

Although the Act contains a general prohibition against shops opening on Sundays, there are exceptions to this through two main channels – first, by the listing of certain goods which may be sold on Sundays and at other times outside normal hours; and, second, by a grant of exemption to individual shops to permit them to open on Sundays. Where a shop sells exempted goods outside the normal trading hours, the Act requires all non-exempted goods to be locked away and not exposed for sale.

Protection of Wages

Measures providing for enforceable minimum rates of wages have already been described. A worker's wages are also protected in various other ways, the principal protection being provided in the Wages Protection and Contractors Liens Act of 1939 and the Wages Protection Act of 1964. The first legislation of this kind was introduced in 1871 when the Contractors Debts Act gave a worker a means of recovering wages due as a priority claim against the employer. This legislation was replaced in 1884 by the Workmen's Wages Act. In 1891 a Truck Act prohibited the payment of wages in any form except money, with the main object of preventing an employer from paying a worker partly in stores charged at exorbitant prices. The 1964 Act revises earlier legislation whilst retaining its essential principles. Wages must be paid in money unless the worker agrees in writing to accept payment by postal or money order, cheque or bank lodgment. The Crown or local bodies may pay their workers by cheque without need for agreement in writing. Wages must also be paid in full except for deductions (such as income tax) authorised by statute or consented to in writing by the worker. The Wages Protection and Contractors Liens Act of 1939 protects the wages of certain types of workers mostly in construction projects by making various provisions to ensure priority of payment of wages over other claims against principals, contractors, or subcontractors.

The Bankruptcy Act 1908 and the Companies Act 1955 also contain provisions giving priority to wages in the event of bankruptcy or the winding up of a company. There are special provisions, mainly relating to the place of payment, in the Coal Mines Act 1925, the Mining Act 1926, the Shipping and Seamen Act 1952, and the Sale of Liquor Act of 1962.

Workers' Compensation

In 1882 an Employers' Liability Act was passed by the New Zealand Parliament modelled on a British Act made two years earlier. This was the first provision of its kind in New Zealand. It gave the worker a claim against the employer where there was negligence on the part of the latter or his agent and, subject to some modifications, this continued to be the position until 1900. In 1900 a Workers' Compensation Act was enacted which, for the first time in New Zealand, introduced the principle that compensation for industrial accidents should not rest on proof of negligence by the employer or his agent. In 1908 a new Workers' Compensation Act replaced the 1900 Act, and at the same time legislation was introduced to facilitate and control insurance against industrial accidents. The New Zealand Official Yearbook of 1912, summarising the 1908 legislation, said: “It had been found that little practical advantage accrued to injured workers or their families under the Liability Acts, as most industrial accidents have nothing to do with negligence or shortcomings of employers; such accidents are the outcome of risks incidental to every branch of enterprise and manufacture. The Workers' Compensation Act does not imply a fault on the part of any individual…. To meet the difficulty of too great expense falling suddenly on an employer through his being called upon to pay large compensation for accident, provision is made by the Government Accident Insurance Act 1908, and by a State Department which insures employers against risk. There are also several private companies which undertake these risks and are regulated in some degree by the Accident Insurance Companies Act 1908”. (The Government Life Insurance Office had opened an Accident Branch in 1901, transferred in 1925 to the State Fire Insurance Office.)

The 1908 Act was subject to continuing review and amendment, mainly in the direction of improving the machinery of the Act and liberalising the compensation provisions. In 1922 the Act was consolidated and re-enacted. Since then the more important amendments have been: an amendment in 1947 which made it compulsory for an employer to insure against his liability under the Act; an amendment in 1947 which made workers' compensation insurance (with certain exceptions) a monopoly of the State Fire Insurance Office; and an amendment of 1950 which restored the right of private insurance companies to undertake accident insurance and which established a Workers' Compensation Board to make recommendations as to maximum rates of premiums, and to administer a Workers' Compensation Account also set up by the amending legislation. In 1956 the legislation was again consolidated and re-enacted as the Workers' Compensation Act 1956.

Insurance of employees is compulsory on all employers, though the Secretary of Labour may grant exemption in cases where an employer has adequate financial resources to cover claims or has his employees adequately indemnified against injury in some other way. The Workers' Compensation Board acts as the insurer of employers who have neglected to insure their workers so that workers are protected in all cases, the Board being empowered to recover from the delinquent employers any sums it pays out as insurer. If an injury for which compensation is payable by an insurer was caused under circumstances creating a legal liability for damages in some person other than the employer, the insurer is entitled to indemnification by the person so liable.

Maximum rates of premiums for the different categories of workers are prescribed by regulations. One of the functions of the Workers' Compensation Board is to recommend from time to time what these maximum rates should be. The Board receives notification from insurers of accidents notified and payments made, and from this information is able to recommend adjustments to keep premium rates in line with the incidence of claims. To finance the activities of the Board, which include assistance to research and other activities connected with accident prevention, levies are collected from authorised insurers and exempted employers.

Maximum rates of compensation are fixed from time to time by Order in Council. Maximum total payments of compensation for death or incapacity are expressed in the Act in terms of the current maximum weekly payments so that a variation of any weekly rate automatically varies the corresponding total amount. During total incapacity the maximum weekly payments are fixed at 80 per cent of the workers' weekly earnings, but with specified maximum and minimum limits which, by a 1964 amendment of the Workers' Compensation Order 1963, were fixed at £10 17s. 6d. a week and £2 14s. a week respectively at that time. The maximum total sum payable in the case of death or total incapacity was a sum equal to the aggregate of the prescribed maximum weekly payments for 274 weeks. Various allowances and expenses are payable in addition to the ordinary compensation. The worker's weekly earnings are deemed to be his ordinary weekly earnings exclusive of overtime or his average weekly earnings whichever is the greater.

There is a special Compensation Court for the hearing of workers' compensation cases.

by Noel Spencer Woods, M.A., DIP.ED., DIP.SOC.SC., Chief Research Officer, Department of Labour, Wellington.

LABOUR, DEPARTMENT OF 23-Apr-09 Noel Spencer Woods, M.A., DIP.ED., DIP.SOC.SC., Chief Research Officer, Department of Labour, Wellington.