Commonwealth legislation

Transport Workers (Waterside) Regulations

RepealedCTH

This Act has been repealed and is no longer in force. It is retained for historical reference.

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Act Number

158 of 1930

Collection

legislative instrument

Plain English Summary

2/10 complexity

What this does: These regulations govern how dock workers (waterside workers) are hired to load and unload overseas and interstate ships at Australian ports.

The main rule: When employers hire casual labour on the wharves — known as "picking-up" — they must give priority to members of the Waterside Workers' Federation (the dock workers' union). Only if no union members are available can they hire non-members.

The exception: Returned soldiers and sailors (veterans) can be hired even if they are not union members. This protection applies regardless of the general union priority rule.

The penalty: Any employer who breaks these rules commits an offence and faces a fine of £10 or up to one month in prison.

Why it matters: This forces waterfront employers to favour unionised labour in the casual hiring system, effectively creating a "closed shop" on the docks while carving out an exemption for veterans.

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Transport Workers (Waterside) Regulations

STATUTORY RULES.

1930. No. 158.

REGULATIONS UNDER THE TRANSPORT WORKERS ACT 1928-1929.

I, THE person administering the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Regulations under the Transport Workers Act 1928-1929, to come into operation on the Nineteenth day of December, One thousand nine hundred and thirty.

Dated this nineteenth day of December, 1930.

SOMERS

Administering the Government of the

Commonwealth of Australia.

By his Excellency’s Command,

F. M. FORDE,

for Minister of State for Transport.

Transport Workers (Waterside) Regulations.

Short title.

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Transport Workers (Waterside) Regulations.

Order of election of workers.

2.—(1). In the employment, engagement or picking-up of transport workers (being waterside workers) for oversea or inter-State vessels at the ports in the Commonwealth to which Part III. of the Transport Workers Act 1923-1929 applies, priority shall be given to those of such workers available for employment, engagement or picking-up at those ports, who are members of the Waterside Workers’ Federation of Australia, an organization which is bound by an existing award of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration applicable to such employment:

Provided that nothing in this Regulation shall operate to prevent the employment, engagement or picking-up of returned soldiers or returned sailors, as defined in section eighty-one a of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1904-1930.

(2.) Any person who employs, engages or picks up a transport worker (being a waterside worker) in contravention of the last preceding sub-regulation shall be guilty of an offence.

Penalty: Ten pounds or imprisonment for one month.

By Authority: H. J. Green, Government Printer, Canberra.

Source text

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.

1 Transport Workers (Waterside) Regulations