Note 85 — Chapter VIII · —THE STANDARD WAGE (Continued)

Thus, take the cautionary warning in the Report of Commission of Enquiry into Industrial Agreements (Great Britain) upon the proposal to make collective agreements entered into by joint industrial councils compulsory upon all enterprises engaged in the industry providing a certain majority (75 per cent. was the suggestion) of work people and employers in the industry or craft in question were represented in the council. "51—Attention has been drawn to the fact that, in the establishment of a scheme for dealing with proposals for extension of agreements, it would be necessary to provide for exceptions to be made in regard to individual firms or work people whose conditions of trade or employment were such as to differentiate them from the remainder of the trade to such an extent as to make the application of the agreement to them an inequitable proceeding." CD 6953, 1913, page 14.

A bill embodying a clause providing for such a scheme for extension was proposed by the government in 1919 in return for certain concessions from the trade unions, but was withdrawn when the parliamentary labor leaders would not agree to the concessions.