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?
Page 353.
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5.
200
Page 354f3strators of standing ratheragh354freexperts,
and that it should be independent of the bodies it will have to control.
(b) That Committee should direct that work on unloading or loading all ships now idle should at once be resumed and that the Port employers, acting on behalf of His Majesty, should call for labour for this purpose under the Scheme.
(c)
(a)
That Committee should further direct the Dock Labour
Board to operate all provisions of the Scheme, including the disciplinary provisions of Articles, 16 and 17.
In the result calls would be made for labour in the
ordinary course. If, on such calls being made in respect of the two disputed Canadian ships, the men called did not report, the local Board would presumably dismiss the individuals concerned and remove their names from the register. If this were followed, in selected cases, by summonses claiming damages being issued out of the County Court the men might realise the serious consequences which their action was bringing on their own heads.
I
I should add that it is doubtful whether a direction in the terms suggested in paragraph 4(c) above would itself be legally enforceable. I do not think that matters. The men would know that the disciplinary provisions of the Scheme were not being operated, as they might otherwise think, at the whim of local Boards in whose members they had no confidence but at the insistence of the Government on the part of the community. It is, indeed, possible that other powers which the Regulations purport to give may not be strictly intra vires the Act. have advised that this risk should be taken and that the Regulations should cover matters on which action is required without undue regard to the niceties of the law.
In an emergency the Government may have, in matters admitting of legal doubt, to act first and argue about the doubts later, if necessary obtaining an indemnification Act. No such necessity would, however, arise in connection with the present matter, since the local Boards would be operating their powers under the Scheme and the fact that they were doing so following a possibly ultra vires direction from the Port Emergency Committee would be immaterial. The important thing, as it seems to me, is that the Labour Scheme must be worked. Indeed, it may be thought by some unfortunate to have to use the sledge hammer of emergency powers or even to condemn the Dock Labour Scheme when little serious attempt seems to have been made to operate the Scheme or the ordinary law.
6.
If the action suggested under paragraph 4 turned out to be ineffective, consideration might have to be given to directing labour under the Defence Regulations.
7.
It may be useful to take this opportunity of dealing with certain other matters which have been raised in the present discussions.
8.
The right to withhold one's labour - i.e. the right to strike - is an individual right which is in no way conditional upon the approval of the Executive of any particular Trade Union. A strike exists when any body of men in fact acting in concert cease work.
is nothing in the Dock Labour Scheme, nor I
apprehena St
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here be, which limits the reg€ 350 gt360.
The Scheme does not create any penal obligation to obey orders: its terms simply form the contract of employment.
It is a
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