I.
INTRODUCTORY.
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Wages and conditions of employment in Great Britain are determined in very large measures by agreements reached by collective bargaining between voluntarily formed organisations of employers and of workpeople.
The policy of the State in relation to the regulation of wages and the prevention and settlement of disputes is to avoid unnecessary intervention and to encourage the parties to reach a settlement themselves. Statutory machinery is, however, provided to which differences may be referred if the parties so desire when the voluntary machinery existing in the trade or industry concerned fails to provide a settlement, or when the parties concerned are not covered by any such machinery.
The need under the voluntary system for the effective organisation of the
Trade unions and parties is generally recognised and accepted on all sides. employers' associations are commonly recognised by the Government as representing the interests of their members, and are called into consultation when matters affecting them are under consideration. Provision is also made in a number of legislative measures for the representation of employers' and workers' organisa- tions on various statutory bodies.
The principal matters relating to wages and working conditions, on which some form of State regulation has been found to be necessary are:-
(i) the fixing and enforcement of minimum conditions of employment in factories; (ii) the hours of employment of women and children and young persons; (iii) the fixing and enforcement of minimum rates of wages in
(a) agriculture,
(b) certain trades in which owing to lack of organisation or other
circumstances there is no adequate machinery for the effective regulation of wages and low standards of wages commonly prevail.
e.,
in
The State also requires that any work that is carried out with the aid of public money from central funds or other forms of State assistance (e.g., loans, subsidies or guarantees) shall be executed under 'fair' conditions, i. accordance with the standards agreed between employers and trade unions or prevailing among good employers.
In the case of the Cotton Manufacturing (Weaving) Industry statutory assis- tance is given for the enforcement of collective agreements reached by organisa- tions of employers and of workpeople.
It is the purpose of this memorandum to give an outline of the organisation and machinery by which this system of the settling of wages and working conditions is operated.
II.
Organisation of Employers and Workpeople.
(a) Historical and legislative development.
The problems arising in connection with the relationship of the State to industry and the development of constitutional relations between employers and workers have been worked out gradually since the latter part of the eighteenth century. The law on the subject is consequently embodied in a considerable number of Acts, supported by a large body of case law, which have not been codified in any official document. In the following paragraphs the causes and effects of the chief legislative measures concerned are briefly reviewed.
It should be noted that in its legal sense, as apart from its ordinary applica- tion only to combinations of workers, the term "trade union" is used to cover all combinations both of workers and of employers.
Although legislation tending to check combinations, particularly with regard to workpeople, has been in existence since the middle ages, it is sufficient for present purposes to make a beginning in 1799 when the growth of combination among workmen, and the distrust with which such combinations were held, led to the
to prevent passing of the first general Act the Combination Act of 1799 unlawful combinations. This Act, together with an amending Act passed in the following year, declared illegal all contracts by workmen for improving their conditions of employment, and rendered persons entering into combination for the
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