21a["Federal Arbitration Court", The Worker (Brisbane, Qld.), Saturday 02 December 1911, page 14]

Federal Arbitration Court.

Eight Hour Day for Sailors.

In the Federal Arbitration Court in Melbourne last week the President, Mr. Justice Higgins, delivered his reserved decision in the action between the Federated Seamen's Union of Australia and the Steamship Owners' Association. The President said, in part:

"The change asked for relates almost solely to the hours of six or eight deck hands, who keep watches, three or four men at a time, and only to the time that they are at sea. I propose, therefore, to award that hours at sea shall be eight for deck hands who are on watch, as well as for deck hands who are daymen; so that they shall no have worse hours than the stokehold men or than labourers on the Australian coast. But I propose to postpone the operation of this provision till July 1, 1912, as on some ships it may be necessary to put up some further accommodation for some additional men, and a liberal allowance of time ought to be made for making the necessary alterations and incidental arrangements."

After referring to the provisions for holidays and overtime, the President dealt with the claim in respect of wages--substantially a claim for £1 more all round. He said:

"At present, the A.B. receives £7 per month, and his 'keep' on board ship. Taking the keep as in former cases at 10s. per week, or nearly £2 5s. per month, the pay is slightly over 6s. per day. This means the meagre pittance of 3d. per hour for an A.B. — if the present average of more than twelve hours per day be maintained — whereas dock and ships' labourer are paid under the agreement 1s. 1d. per hour at least, with higher rates for special circumstances and double for holiday.

"I will fix the minimum wage, however, on the assumption that a day of eight hours hours is established by the award. The respondents admit the principles laid down in the harvester case, and admit that the 7s. per day or 42s. per week minimum wage fixed in that case for an adult labourer (unskilled) should be paid to seamen. That minimum wage amounts to £109 4s for 52 weeks, or £105 11s. for 365 days, and was fixed for a man who works only six days per week. The seaman gives 52 days in addition and gets only £110 in all for the year, including keep. In other words, he gets for seven days per week only 9s. per annum more than the unskilled labourer, who works six days per week. He has also to provide his own clothes, bedding, utensils, etc. There is no doubt that in the matter of wages, as well as in other things, the seaman has the fag end of things.

"The A.B.'s wages have not been increased since 1887, although the cost of living has increased considerably since that time. It is my clear duty to prescribe the following minimum rates of pay: Boatswain, £9 per month; A.B. employed as lamp trimmer, £9; A.B., £8; ordinary seaman--if 18 years or over, £6; if under 18, £5; donkeyman, £11; greaser, £10; fireman, £10; trimmer, £7. The act is not an act for profit-sharing, but for securing peace in industries, and the best way of securing peace is to secure to a man, as far as possible, wages and conditions of life on a level with the current standards of the community."

21b[Fitzpatrick, Brian and Cahill, Rohan J., 1981, The Seamen's Union of Australia 1872-1972: A History, Seaman's Union of Australia, Sydney, Chapter 5]

5

Arbitration Succeeds Collective Bargaining

The Higgins Award 1911

Compulsory industrial arbitration was applied to the seamen in 1911 after the Union's refusal to renew the agreement with the Steamship Owners' Association on its expiry date of 1910, and its decision not to work the ships from New Year's Day 1911.

At this time the Union membership was around 7,000, being 98 per cent of seamen employed on insterstate vessels. One of the Union demands on the owners as a condition of renewal of the 1909 agreement was the concession of preference to unionists in employment. The owners' obduracy about this and other matters in dispute, with an equally determined attitude on the part of the Union, resulted in the breaking up without agreement of a conference between representatives of each organisation in December 1910. Expectations had been strong in the seamen that they would gain an improvement in the amount as well as in the mode of payment of wages. They wanted an increase of 50 per cent in overtime rates, and the 8-hour day at sea, for the deck, to be worked on a basis of 4 hours on and 8 hours off.

After the breakdown of a conference between the parties, on December 10, the President of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court, Mr Justice Higgins, intervened on the threat of the men to strike, and called compulsory conference of the parties on December 31. In a provisional agreement the owners gave certain concessions, including preference to unionists; the strike was called off before it had begun, and employers and Union agreed to submit matters in dispute to arbitration. The case of the Federated Seamen's Union of Australia v. Commonwealth Steamship Owners' Association came before the Court, on a detailed claim by the Seamen's Union, in October 1911.

The Federal Court system of industrial arbitration had then a history of half a dozen years. Two Commonwealth ministries had fallen over the Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904 which at length gave power to set up a Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration: the Liberal Alfred Deakin's first ministry, and the first Labor ministry, that of J. C. Watson. During its first twenty years, of course including the period of the Higgins Award for seamen, Justices of the High Court of Australia were seconded to the Arbitration jurisdiction as President. R. E. O'Connor was first, H. B. Higgins succeeded him on November 14, 1907.

...

When the seamen's first log of claims came up, the second Labor ministry of Fisher was well established, with a majority in both Houses of the Commonwealth Parliament. Soon after his appointment to the presidency of the Arbitration Court in 1907, H. B. Higgins had set the world the example in Australia of a minimum wage based on "the normal needs of an average employee regarded as a human being living in a civilised community". And when the seamen's claims came to arbitration the Senate, though not yet the House of Representatives, had passed a Navigation Bill.

The Seamen's Union, at deadlock with the owners and proposing to strike - until the intervention of the Arbitration Court in December 1910 - could well afford to experiment with the machinery of the new industrial order.

In Higgins they found a sympathetic arbiter. He said in his judgment:

"There is no doubt that in the matter of wages, as well as in the other matters, the seaman has had the fag-end of things. Owing, I presume, to the difficulty of meeting, of combining, of acting in concert, scattered as they are across the face of the globe, in a roving life and with scanty leisure, seamen have never been able properly to assert their collective interests."

He began with not of the recent finding of the Navigation Commission on the standstill of seamen's working conditions at a low level, and he granted both the the Union claim for an 8-hour day and its wages claim . . . [details given]

Regarding the 1909 provision for monthly payment of wages only by grace as "a survival of the old unfair and harmful system under which a sailor's wages did not accrue due until the end of his term even if the term were for three years", he made an order for payment of wages on the 1st of the month as of right, with provision for payment of up to 75 per cent of wages to the seaman's family on his written order.

...