The recent agreement of the employers and workers' unions in
the distributive trades to draw up a scheme for regulating the hours, wages and conditions in the industry provides a welcome instance of voluntary co-operation for the common benefit. The scheme is embodied in a report published on Thursday and now in the hands of the Minister of Labour awaiting his decisions. Briefly, it suggests that the Minister shall establish a national body composed of represen- tatives of the employers and workers, together with three impartial members nominated by the Minister, in order to fix minimum wages, hours of work and conditions of employ- ment. The decisions of the national body, it is suggested, would receive statutory enforcement. Special committees would be set up to investigate specific branches of the industry, and their recommendations would have to be approved by the national body. Uniform standards would not necessarily be applied to all branches. The effect of this scheme would be similar to that which would result from the setting up of Trade Boards for each separate branch, but the advantages of regulating the whole industry under one scheme are obvious.
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