and have the force of law from any other date than the On 26th August, 1916, judgment was delivered by Dickson The claim made by the Australian Workers' Union, the answers of the respondents, and the judgment and award of Dickson A.J.I.C. are set out in the Government Gazette of 15th September, 1916. These documents are of very great length, and the following extracts will be sufficient for the purpose of this report. In Part I. of the award, which related to sugar field workers, the following provisions were made: Cooks. The award classified cooks into three classes, and fixed the wages of each class, and provided (b) The employer shall provide offsiders for the cooks as follows:- When over 25 and up to 50 men are being cooked for, one offsider; when over 50 and up to 75, two offsiders; and when over 75, three offsiders; when over 100 are being cooked for, one offsider for each additional 35 men. (c) All cooks and offsiders shall be paid for seven days a week. They shall receive free food and accommodation, and shall not be paid overtime. (d) When 50 men or more are being cooked for, cooks shall receive an extra 1s. per day; when 100 or more men are being cooked for, an extra 2s. per day. Accommodation.-3. (a) Every employer shall provide all employees with accommodation free of charge, in conformity with The Workers' Accommodation Act of 1915. In addition thereto, the employer shall also provide wire stretchers, mattresses, and brooms. (b) In all cases adequate artificial light for all purposes shall be provided by the employer. (c) Where it is found necessary for an employee to camp away from barracks or hut accommodation, all tents and other camping necessaries and cooking utensils shall be provided by the employer free of charge. Food.-4. (a) On plantations or farms when ten or more men are employed, the employer, if desired by the employees, shall supply all food and rations, which shall be of sufficient quantity, sound, well cooked, and properly served. All food as required shall be served on the table, and where reasonably procurable the F. C. 53 R. v. INDUSTRIAL WORKERS' Ex parte SUGAR PRODUCERS' ASSOCIATION LTD. F. C following goods shall be supplied as rations. These items shall R. v. INDUSTRIAL be included in the ration scale :-Acid (tartaric), arrowroot, COURT AND AUSTRALIAN WORKERS' Ex parte bread, bacon, baking powder, barley (pearl), bay leaves, beans (b) All cooking and table utensils shall be provided free of charge by the employer, and be kept clean by him. (c) The value of such food shall be taken to be £1 per week in the Northern district and 19s. per week in the Southern district, and no further sum shall be deducted by an employer in respect thereof from the wages prescribed herein. (d) Under no circumstances is an employer to insist upon an employee taking his remuneration partly in food and [or] accommodation; every employee is to be at liberty to stipulate for the whole of his wages in cash. (e) No employer shall attempt to prevent his employees forming a mess of their own, nor shall any employer let by contract to any person the victualling of his employees. (f) The employer shall also provide firewood and a sufficient supply of necessary water. Canecutters' Agreements.-12. Where written agreements for canecutting are entered into, they shall be in the form and in the terms of Schedule A hereto. Each employee shall be supplied with a copy of his agreement free of cost (vide also p. 60). (a) Agreements for cutting cane in time of harvest by agreement may be entered into, provided that no cane cutting by agreement shall be carried on for more than eight hours in any one day, and that the remuneration of the employees shall not fall below the rates herein prescribed for day labour, inclusive of overtime : Provided that nothing in this award shall preclude wages men and pieceworkers, where mutually agreed upon, from making up the forty-eight hours a week by working eight hours and forty minutes upon Mondays to Fridays, inclusive, and four hours and forty minutes on Saturdays; such time to be deemed ordinary working time. (b) Where pieceworkers are working in a gang, they shall have the right of selecting the members of their own gangs, and may refuse the admission of any person to the gang. Scale of Rations.-14. Where it is arranged or agreed upon by and between the employer and employee that rations are to be supplied by the employer to the employee, they shall be as comprised in the following scale, that is to say :-[A long scale of rations and equivalents and substitutes for different items was set out, vide scale on p. 54.] The issue of provisions for which a total weekly and no daily amount is given in the above scale shall be reasonably distributed throughout the week. An equal quantity of fish up to an amount not exceeding 1 lb. in any one week may be substituted for preserved or salt meat under the above scale. This "scale of rations" shall not apply to aboriginal natives of Asia, Africa, or the islands of the Pacific not accustomed to a European dietary, with whom an agreement shall be entered into providing an adequate scale of provisions suited to their needs and uses and of approximate cost, including if requested and obtainable the following [A scale was set out]. In the part of the award relating to sugar mill workers, there were clauses similar to those set out above and also the following: Recognition of Union Officials.-12. The recognised official of any organisation to which the worker belongs, upon notice thereof F. C. R. v. INDUSTRIAL SUGAR LTD. F. C. R. v. INDUSTRIAL WORKERS' Ex parte being given, shall be allowed to interview employees at reasonable hours, and no representative of any organisation shall be penalised by an employer: Provided such officer shall not converse with, or otherwise hinder or hamper the employee during his working time, but may interview any employee or converse with him during his crib time or after working hours. Shortly after the making of the award, application was made to Macnaughton J.I.C. for the rescission thereof on the ground, inter alia, that the award was bad and ultra vires in that (a) it purports to make the award retrospective; (b) the food and accommodation therein described are contrary to the provisions of s. 31 of the Industrial Peace Act and of the Workers' Accommodation Act; (c) it purports to grant rights and privileges to persons who were not parties to the proceedings before the Court; and (d) generally that it purports to deal with matters outside the jurisdiction of the Industrial Court. On a summons for direction with respect to this motion, Macnaughton J.I.C. referred the application to Dickson A.J.I.C., who refused to make any order. Vide The Industrial Peace Act of 1912, s. 75; In re Calling of Sugar Field and Sugar Mill Workers (1). On the application of the Australian Sugar Producers' Association Limited, an order nisi was granted calling upon the Industrial Court and the Acting Judge thereof, and Australian Workers' Union, to show cause why a writ of prohibition should not be issued, prohibiting them and each of them from proceeding or further proceeding upon the award upon the grounds following-that is to say-The award was made without and in excess of jurisdiction-(a) The award professes and is Intended to have a retrospective effect; (b) the award prevents the operation of The Masters and Servants Act of 1861 with respect to the remedies of employers therein provided against the employees, and therefore impliedly repeals the said Act; (c) the award professes and is intended to impose on the employers the obligation to supply food and goods to the worker on a specified scale for a specified sum contrary to law; (d) the award deals with wages, food, and accommodation of the calling of cooks; (e) the accommodation ordered by the award to be provided by employers is in excess of and contrary to The Workers' (1) 1916, Q.W.N. 34. Accommodation Act of 1915; (f) the award grants permission generally to officials of any organisation to which workers belong to enter upon the premises of employers and interview employees; (g) and upon the other grounds appearing in the passage set out on pp. 51-53; and why the costs of and incidental to these proceedings should not be paid by the Australian Workers' Union. Stumm K.C. and Grove moved the order absolute, and referred to The Industrial Peace Act of 1912, ss. 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 20, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 44, 45, 46, 47, 52, 53, 55, 57, 58. The Industrial Court has no power to make an award retrospective in its operation. Midland Railway Co. v. Pye (1). The provisions of the award are not severable, and the whole award is invalid. Claims in two specific callings cannot be the subject matter of one award. The award in part prevents the operation of The Masters and Servants Act of 1861 and if valid operates to repeal that statute; no power to alter existing statutory law lies in a judge of the Industrial Court. Vide The Masters and Servants Act of 1861, ss. 3, 4, 5. The judge had no jurisdiction without statutory authority to order the supply of food-cf. Shearers and Sugar Workers' Accommodation Acts, 1905-6, repealed by The Workers' Accommodation Act of 1915and if any authority is given by that Act, the accommodation granted by the award is in excess of that Act. The clause giving union officials a right of entry is invalid; s. 55 contains the only authority of entry and the Judge cannot by an award delegate his power to authorize an entry, and any entry under the clause is a trespass. As to cooks, there is no power under the submission, which only embraces certain classes of workers, to make an award applicable to cooks. R. v. Justices of Innisfail (2). The award is excessive in its operation, being for a period greater than was claimed. Whybrow's Case (3). They referred also to Smithies v. National Association of Operative Plasterers (4), The Queen v. Griffiths (5), Re Masters and Servants Act of 1861, Baddeley v. Earl Granville (6). Feez K.C. and Mahoney showed cause. The Industrial Court has plenary powers in industrial matters, and no power rests in any Court to interfere with its awards; they have the force of law-ss. 13, 3, 7, 13, 16. Section 13 is stronger than the (1) 1861, 10 C.B.N.S. 179, at 191. (2) 1915, St. R. Qd. 206. (3) 1910, 11 C.L.R. 1, at pp. 30-31. (4) [1909] 1 K.B. 310, at p. 319. (6) 1887, 19 Q.B.D. 423, at p. 426. F. C. R. v. INDUSTRIAL SUGAR ASSOCIATION LTD. |