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or arbitrator, such as the Industrial Court, or an arbitrator formally appointed by the Ministry of Labour and National Service, although not infrequently a settlement is only reached with the assistance of the officers of the Department by way of conciliation.
Before the War it was far more usual than at the present time for voluntary collective agreements to contain an arbitration clause providing that, if and when some other moans of arriving at an agreement should fail, the parties should accept the verdict of an impartial individual or Bourd. In practical expericnce the presence of an arbitration clause in a collective agreement has sometimes been found to make all the preliminary stages of the ncgotiation unreal and ineffective. The parties may be less willing to come to terms on a practical compromise if they know that there is a possibility of arbitration in the background and may hesitate to make or accept concessions at an earlier stage lest their eventual position before the arbitration should be weakened. Greater value is attached to the effective working of machinery for arriving at a mutual agreement by consent than to the maintenance in all cases of the arbitration clause.
Trade Unions and employers' organisations are generally opposed to any binding arrangement for reference to arbitration.
Some reasons, to that stated above are:
in addition
(a) the growth of regulation by decisions of an independent authority tends to weaken the position of the organisations both as regards membership and as regards the direction of policy by the leaders;
(b) claims are likely to be pressed further than their merits justify,
and leaders are not only able to shift their responsibilities but are even compelled to allow claims, however badly founded, to go to arbitration;
(c) encouragement is given to malcontents to cause claims to be made
whatever the view of the leaders;
(d) the parties, and their loaders, tend to be litigants or advocates
rather than co-operators.
There can be no doubt that where the parties are free to refuse arbitra- tion and neither can be sure of such a stage being reached the negotiations will be of a more realistic character and, even if arbitration is eventually agreed upon, the previous negotiations will have gone far to clarify or narrow the issue. The need for negotiations tends to disappear altogether
if arbitration becomes the usual method of settlement.
Another important point is that, if executives of organisations settle differences by arbitration, their authority to deal with the day to day problems is reduced and this operates against the smooth running of the under- takings concerned. This is more important in its effect than occasional deadlocks on major issues. Slowly but surely the arbitration tribunal becomes the dominant authority on small as well as important matters.
V.
JOINT NEGOTIATING MACHINERY.
Although the methods and machinery adopted for reaching collectivo agree- ments of the kind referred to in the previous section have certain common features, the character, scope and functions of such machinery present wide variations corresponding to the great variety of conditions in the industries themselven. In many cases the existing joint arrangements represent the results of a slow and long-continued evolution whereby the machinery has been closely adapted to the special requirements and circumstances of the respec- tive trades. Since 1918, the general tendency has been to provide more and more for national settlements or at least settlements over a wide area, although in some industrios the principal part is still played by local or regional machinery. It should be noted, however, that even in industries in which national agreements define the conditions of employment with great precision, district or local agreements frequently exist side by side with thom.
In order that conflict may be avoided between the terms of the national and other agreements, it is usual for the district and local agreements to
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