I move the motion standing in the names of Senator Lynch, Senator Campbell and myself, as follows:—
That the Emergency Powers (No. 83) Order, 1941, tabled on 14th May, 1941, be and is hereby annulled.
We, of the whole Labour movement throughout the country, regard this order as the culmination of an apparently definite effort on the part of the Government to enslave the workers. Everything contained in this order deprives the working class of rights won by years of suffering and sacrifice on the part of the people. To our mind, this is the most reactionary order introduced since the setting up of the native Government. The workers are very disturbed about the whole trend of Government policy so far as it affects them. By this order, the Trade Disputes Act, wrung from a Conservative Government in Britain, goes overboard. That was one of the greatest and best safeguards the workers had won by legislative effort. By this order it is shelved. The trade boards also go into oblivion. How long this position will last entirely depends on the Government. The trade boards were established to deal with sweated industries and unscrupulous employers who were exploiting juveniles and women who had not the protection of trade unions. That protection goes into oblivion. The Agricultural Wages Board, set up by the Government themselves—a board to which the agricultural workers might make application to have their wages and working hours improved—also disappears. The Wages Board ceases to function.
We see that the Government is introducing a Trades Union Bill in order to model trades unions in the way they would like them. The Conditions of Employment Act—a measure for which the Government got great credit and which was very much appreciated by the working class—goes overboard also. The Seanad will realise that the working class, so far as they are concerned under this order, are without any protection whatever. In many arguments the Minister and the members of the Government have denounced the vicious spiral. A spiral, apparently, is vicious only when it trends upwards: it is not vicious when it shows a downward trend. There is nothing to prevent an employer or a body of employers from reducing wages and changing conditions but the power of the organised workers, which the Government intends to interfere with in another manner. This is all very ominous so far as the working class are concerned, and they are very disturbed. I challenge the Minister on this statement: there is no section of the community which shows more consideration for the emergency than the working class of this country.
The average increase since the emergency began does not exceed 4/- per week, and everybody here will realise that the cost of living has gone very much higher than that covers. The pursuit of prices by the workers— which the Minister and the Government so very strongly denounced—is not evident there. There is ample evidence, on the other hand, that the working class appreciate the emergency and are prepared to make sacrifices in order to meet it. And this is their reward— Emergency Order 83. Legislation by order has been denounced time and again by the members of this Party. When the previous Government were in office they introduced a kind of Emergency Powers Bill, and some of us in this House visualised a time when a Government would use an Emergency Powers Order to persecute and penalise the workers of the country. That time has come; the order is there.
These are law-abiding citizens, these are people whose rights are concerned under the Constitution and, by an order laid on the Table of the House— not by any Bill or measure that we could criticise, amend or alter—the rights are torn from them which have been secured by generations of effort and sacrifice. That is a deplorable condition of affairs brought about by a native Government. That is one reason why we are opposed to legislation by order.
The efforts of the Government are entirely misdirected. If they wish to secure the co-operation of the workers in industrial matters, they should take them into their confidence more and recognise their difficulties. It is futile to talk of controlling wages while we leave prices practically untouched— and that is the condition to-day. It matters not to us whether our wages are £10 or £1 per week: what really matters is what we can get for that money for ourselves and our families and what standard of living we can maintain. If the Government can ensure that this standstill order will not worsen the already bad conditions of the working class, then we have no complaint and we are with them wholeheartedly. We submit, however, that by this order they are definitely worsening the conditions of the workers all over the country—agricultural and industrial. Consequently, we think that this order should be annulled or restricted in the light of its possible effects. Its repercussions throughout the country may cause a disturbance in the conditions which, happily, have prevailed up to the present.
I suggest—and I think the Minister and the Government generally will have to agree—that at no period in this country has there been less industrial strife than since the emergency arose. The workers have shown their appreciation and recognition of the Government's difficulty. They have not pressed unduly for increased wages or taken advantage of the position to exploit the community in general. No; they have been satisfied with about half the amount they were entitled to in increased wages to meet the increased cost of living. This is a standstill order only in so far as going up is concerned; retreating or returning is not an offence under it.
If any employer gives an increase in wages he is liable to a penalty of a fine of £100. My knowledge of employers generally is that even if the £100 fine were not there, they are very reluctant at any time to give an increase in wages, but with this menace of a £100 fine over their heads they are not very likely to give any increase in wages. There is nothing in this order to prevent the employer worsening conditions. For instance, it is mentioned in the order that in the event of a man or woman, as the case may be, having a certain wage, it is an offence to take on another and pay him a higher rate, but, remember, it is no offence whatever to pay him less than the former employee had.
This order is almost all-embracing. Few can escape the net of the schedule, and I am not going to waste time in pointing out the few that have escaped the net. One very noticeable one is the undertaker. I do not know whether that is intended. The whole matter is an extremely grave subject for the workers of the country. Only last Sunday, at a conference held in Galway, many of the Labour people who attended there, who are Government supporters, were very vehement about the attitude of the Government in connection with this order, and some of them got in touch with their Deputies and Senators to impress on them what it meant to them.
There is a number of Senators in this House who have been nominated by the Government Party as Labour men. I put it to them that they can hardly support an order that is going to enslave the working classes of this country. I have already pointed out how they are going to be enslaved by this. I am sure it would be very interesting if they would tell us how they could possibly justify their support for an order of this nature. In conclusion, I wish to say that this is the most reactionary order that has ever been put through this House since its inception. I sincerely hope the Government will reconsider their whole attitude on these matters, because at the present time we want co-operation; we want goodwill; we want common support, in order that we may carry on through the emergency. Nowhere will that support be more heartily given than by the working classes of this country, but I submit, to put these people in chains, as it were, is not the way to get co-operation. The workers can be led. They are not going to be driven. This order is certainly driving them with a scorpion.