The Gazette 1967/71

tory regulation, and the shop stewards are elected by the workers. In relation to the short term context of this Bill, one must note two changes in Britain in certain areas: — Unemployment, until recently, was confined to certain specific areas. This meant, in effect, that only minimum standards of wages were laid down and pressure was applied, if necessary, by informal groups to strike for better wages. A new impetus to the recognition problem in unions was un doubtedly the growth of the white collar worker. In the circumstances, the Donovan Commission recmmmended that the principle of collective bargaining should be reformed urgently without legal compunction and that many causes of strikes, such as unfair dismissals, should be condemned. The essential features of the new Bill were that there was henceforth going to be legal enforcement of collective bargains, which had to be in writing, as it was contended this procedure was more orderly. The newly-constituted National Industrial Relations Court could declare that the procedure for the settlement of disputes could henceforth be made binding on both sides whether they had agreed on it or not. This would seem to preclude a legal strike until the procedure had been applied. As Lord Denning said in Morgan v Fry — (1968) 3 A.E.R. 458 — "The legal basis on which a strike notice of proper length is held to be harm ful in an inter-union dispute, is that the men can leave their employment altogether by giving a week's notice to terminate it. The truth is that neither employer nor workmen wish to take the drastic action of termination if it can be avoided. It is, therefore, an implication read into the contract by the modern law as to trade disputes that each side is content to accept a strike notice of proper length as law ful. If a strike takes place, the contract of employ ment is suspended during the strike but revives again when the strike is over. Here the defendant were not guilty of intimidation, because they gave a strike notice of proper length. They were not guilty of conspiracy to injure, because they acted honestly and sincerely in what they believed to be right and in the true interests of their mem bers."

Henceforth, under the Bill, only legal registered trade unions can be protected against actions for damages under the Trade Disputes Act 1906, and non-registered trade unions will be liable to penal ties if they strike. The study of Labour Law will consequently assume more importance, as there will be innu merable regulations and decisions arising out of the new Bill. Professor Michael Fogarty, Director of the Institute of Economic and Industrial Research in Dublin, thought that in practice the new Bill was unlikely to produce fundamental changes; it tended to reform much sloppiness in the pro cedure which had existed hitherto. It seemed to him that a trade union as such should not be allowed to be incompetent or a nuisance. In the Post Office Union dispute, Mr. Jackson had admitted that he did not know what he was strik ing for, nor did he take the trouble to find out. It was, on the whole, preferable that legal inter vention should be replaced by a tribunal of spec ialists operating with the flexibility of the Labour Court. He considered that on the whole the Bill gave effect to proper procedures. It would also be necessary to provide by statute, as in Germany, for the representation of workers on the Board of Directors. There appeared to him to be no merit on stressing divisions between law and col lective bargaining. The voluntary approach had been sharply challenged by unimportant strikes which ruined the economy, and behind the intel lectual challenge of opposition to the Bill, there appeared to be a concerted effort at mass hysteria. Mr. Ruaidhri Roberts, of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, favoured the voluntary approach in negotiations, and praised the Government of Northern Ireland for negotiating with the Trade Unions before deciding whether to bring in a similar Bill there.

CRIMINAL LAW HAS FAULTS IN CROWD CONTROL

In a public lecture in Trinity College, Dublin, yesterday, Senator Mary T. W. Burke-Robinson said she agreed with the view that there was too great a dominance of summary trials, and there- 249