A mass of new
Page 38
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• labour-relation legislation
THE RAPID SWING of the pendulum of legislation was referred to by Prof Innis Macbeath in a talk on "Current industrial relations legislation —its application to transport." The, now buried, Industrial Relations Act was one of the most ambitious consolidating and innovating enactments that Britain had ever had, but we were now in the process. of new legislation which would mean, in total, not less law, but different law. This was true even if the rationale was the restoration of free collective bargaining.
There was, said the speaker, continuing change, partly at the workplace, partly in politics, partly in the development of society as a whole, and not least in influences from Europe.
• Prof Macbeath attempted to disentangle three separate strands in the legislative process. Clarity about them was particularly important in an industry like freight transport, which was accustomed to scrupulously detailed legislation administered strictly according to the letter.
Discussing the Discretionary Institution, Prof Macbeath said British administering institutions had had comparatively