Compulsory arbitration and the state sector

Abstract

"Nothing in this Act shall apply to Her Majesty the Queen, or any department of the Government of New Zealand", said section 91 of the original Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act of 1894, but there was a saving sentence "except as herein is otherwise expresslly provided". What was expressly provided was spelled out in Part lV. sections 82 to 84 which applied the act to the govemment railvays. This raises two questions: Why were railwaymen included in a measure which otherwise applied to the private sector only? and, why were railwaymen the only government employees covered by the arbitration act? My paper addresses these questions and reaches the conclusion that fear of a national transport strike as the main reason for the inclusion of railwaymen though the reasons for the exclusion of other government employees are less clear-cut. The paper then explores the attitudes of state employee organisations to the compulsory arbitration system up to the establishment of the first wagefixing tribunal in the state sector, patterned on the Arbitration Court, in 1944, and concludes with a brief survey of more recent developments.