the principal tribunal is a permanent court of arbitration (called the Industrial Court) consisting of persons appointed. by the Minister of Labour, of whom some are independent persons, some are persons representing employers, and some are persons representing workmen; there are also women members. There is a permanent president of the court and in addition there are chairmen of divisions of the court. The other forms of tribunal provided for by the Act are (a) single arbitrators and (b) boards of arbitration consisting of one or more persons nominated by the employers, an equal number nominated by the workpeople, with an independent chairman nominated by the minister. For the purpose of these boards of arbitration, panels of persons (including women) suitable to act in the respective capacities are constituted by the minister. The Industrial Courts Act further empowers the Minister of Labour in the case of disputes, either apprehended or existing, to appoint a court of inquiry, one of the objects of which is to put before the public an impartial account of the merits of the dispute. The Act continued until Sept. 30 1920 the principle of the Wages (Temporary Regulation) Acts, 1918 and 1919, that broadly speaking the wages ruling at the time of the Armistice should remain in force as standard minimum rates. (The Conciliation Act, 1896, continues in existence, but in practice its provisions are covered by the Industrial Courts Act.) The provisions in relation to the appointment of courts of inquiry, for the purpose of making a public inquiry and public report upon the facts and circumstances of a dispute likely to affect seriously the public interest, is based upon the Canadian Industrial Disputes Investigation Act, but while the British Act (like the Canadian Act) provides for the grant to the courts of inquiry of certain compulsory powers to secure the attendance of witnesses, the production of documents, etc., it differs from the Canadian Act inasmuch as it makes no attempt to prohibit a strike or lockout pending the inquiry. The British Act relies entirely upon the value of publicity and the effect of public opinion. In this connexion it may be mentioned that the ex- perience of the working of the Canadian Act has shown that it has failed in practice to prohibit strikes or lockouts and that its success has lain in the power to secure an impartial inquiry and a public pronouncement upon the facts and circumstances of the disputes concerned.
During the first year of the Industrial Courts Act over 500 cases were referred to the arbitration of the industrial court, a number of the cases being of considerable importance as con- cerning the wage rates of the whole industry. During the same period courts of inquiry were appointed in three instances with satisfactory results.
Compulsory Arbitration. Certain aspects of conciliation and arbitration procedure in the United Kingdom have aroused special consideration during recent years. From time to time, proposals have been put forward in favour of declaring strikes and lockouts illegal and instituting compulsory arbitration; at trades union congresses, however, resolutions in favour of compulsory arbitration have been defeated by large majorities. Laws on this basis have existed for some time in Australasia and, under the pressure of war conditions, legal prohibition of strikes and lock- outs and compulsory arbitration were introduced in the United Kingdom. Success was, however, only partial, and the experience of this period affords no reliable guide as to what might be ex- pected to occur under more normal conditions. A large number of strikes and lockouts, some of considerable magnitude, did ir fact occur, and probably the principal influence in restricting the number of stoppages during the war period was the patriotic spirit and the determination on the part, of all classes to bring the war to a successful conclusion. The Whitley Committee on the relations between employers and employed came to the following conclusion on this subject:
We are opposed to any system of compulsory arbitration; there is no reason to believe that such a system is generally desired by employers and employed and, in the absence of such general accept ance, it is obvious that its imposition would lead to unrest. Thc experience of compulsory arbitration during the war has shown that it is not a successful method of avoiding disputes, and in nor mal times it would undoubtedly prove even less successful. Dis-
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putes'can only be avoided by agreement between employers and vorkers and by giving to the latter the greater measure of interest n the industry, advocated in our former reports; but agreement may naturally include the decision of both parties to refer any pecified matter or matters to arbitration, whether this decision is eached before or after a dispute arises.
For the same reason we do not recommend any scheme relating o conciliation which compulsorily prevents strikes or lockouts >ending inquiry.
Various Proposals. Another matter to which considerable attention has been given is the question of the extension to the whole of a trade or industry of the terms of an award or agreement applying to a particular body of employers. In 1913 the In- dustrial Council under the chairmanship of Sir George Askwith reported that, subject to the agreement fulfilling certain require- ments and to an inquiry by the appropriate Government depart- ment, an agreement entered into between an association or associations of employers and workpeople covering a considerable part of the trade or district should be made applicable to the whole of the trade or district concerned. The question was con- sidered at trades union congresses in 1912 and 1913 and also by the Labour party in igiz and was rejected at all these meetings. A recommendation appended to a number of the war agreements for four monthly arbitrations was put into effect by the Munitions of War Act, 1917, which contained a section empowering the Minister of Munitions to extend awards or agreements, if satis- fied that they were binding upon the employers employing the majority of the persons engaged on or in connexion with muni- tions work in any trade or branch of a trade either generally or in a particular district, and a number of orders were issued for this purpose. Under the Wages (Temporary Regulation) Acts, the Minister of Labour had a certain limited power of extending awards and agreements. The report of the provisional joint committee of the industrial conference of 1910, also contained a recommendation for the extension of agreements providing for minimum rates of wages. Proposals with a view to extension were put forward at the time of the introduction of the In- dustrial Courts Bill, but the conditions which, in the view of the Government, must necessarily be attached to such a proposal, were not acceptable to the workpeople's organizations and accordingly the Industrial Courts Act did not contain any provisions for that purpose. This subject is one upon which there is clearly considerable divergence of opinion.
Another movement to which reference may be made is the proposals which have been put forward from time to time for the setting up of a national joint organization of employers and workpeople to cover all trades. In 1911 an industrial council was established under the chairmanship of Sir George Askwith, consisting of 13 leading representatives of employers and 13 leading representatives of labour from all branches of industry, but save for a report on the extension of industrial agreements, the council did comparatively little work and in due course it lapsed. In connexion with the industrial conference in Feb. 1919, proposals were made for the establishment of a national joint industrial council representative of employers and workpeople, but so far it has not been found practicable to establish such a body. A somewhat similar movement is the proposal, also so far unsuccessful, to establish a national association of joint in- dustrial councils. The lack of success which these proposals have so far achieved would appear to suggest that the highly organized industries prefer to be able to deal independently with their own difficulties and are averse to intervention by outside bodies.
The increased organization of employers and workpeople in the United Kingdom which resulted from war conditions has had sub- stantial effects on the machinery for conciliation and arbitration. Labour realized from its strong economic position the power of combination, but attempts at general strikes after the war have also indicated the limitations of the strike weapon, and in addition have impressed on the trade-union movement the need for coordina- tion. This is having effect in the proposals now under discussion for the establishment of a General Staff for labour. On the other hand, recent strikes have produced in certain quarters demands for the institution of some measure such as a ballot to be taken in a manner prescribed by statute prior to a declaration of a strike, but the trade unions are not likely willingly to forego the " lightning
