Merchant Service Guild of Australasia Claimant; and Commonwealth Steamship Owners' Association [1920] HCA 39

560 HIGH COURT (1920,

ea . below. All that their Lordships can do is to answer the question put. _ 1990, Under these circumstances their Lordships will humbly advise — "~~ His Majesty that the appeal from the decision of the High Court see i should be dismissed with costs, and that the action should be remitted to the Supreme Court of New South Wales to direct such further proceedings and make such further orders as may be necessary for

Beni disposing of the action. Assuming that the respondent is at liberty under the arrangements arrived at in Australia to raise a defence to this action upon its merits, this must be dealt with in regular course. Tt would obviously be most undesirable to express any view upon. ' mere hypotheses as to what the facts may turn out to be.

LTH

{HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIA.)

THE MERCHANT SERVICE GUILD peat

AUSTRALASIA Re CLAIMANT ;

AND

THE COMMONWEALTH STEAMSHIP

OWNERS' ASSOCIATION AND OTHERS } peasant

H. C. or A, Zndustrial Arbitration—Industrial dispute—Claim—Interpretation—Fixed rate or minimum rate of wages—Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-

1920. a Raty, 1918 (No. 13 of 1904—No. 39 of 1918), secs. 2144, 40 (1) (b). MeEteourne, prs: i 'A claim made by an organization on employers was that the wages of hig members of the organization "shall be paid in accordance with" certain specified rates. Another claim was that each employer should enter into a Isaacs, Hixkins, written contract embodying the terms of the above claim with each member Gavan Duffy ig and Starke JJ of the organization.

Held, by Isaacs, Gavan Duffy and Starke JJ. (Higgins J. dissenting), that the claim was for minimum rates of wages.

| C.L.R.] _OF AUSTRALIA.

every member of the class; but the Court of Conciliation would have power to prescribe a minimum rate instead of a fixed rate.