Arbitration is a process in which the parties to a dispute present arguments and evidence to an intervenor (the arbitrator) who makes a decision. The process is private and may be confidential, subject to the agreement of the parties. Arbitration offers a flexible and efficient way to settle disputes in Switzerland and abroad. The decision of the arbitral tribunal shall be final and binding. The award is enforceable. The Court had jurisdiction to rule on all disputes or cases submitted to it by a trade union or the Registrar of the Tribunal. [11] Even if both parties disagreed, the tribunal could be modest on wages and working conditions. This should take the form of “rewards”. Trade deals could still be made on a voluntary basis, but they could now be registered with the court. [7] The unions had to register to participate in the court and their registration was able to increase the number of members from 58,200 in 1902 to 68,600 in 1904. [7] The new laws have attracted international attention by claiming that they are “the most radical arbitration law in the world.” [7] The Court of Arbitration was the first court in New South Wales, a state in Australia that in the early twentieth century dealt exclusively with labour disputes.

Judge Lance Wright says it may have been the first court of its kind in the world. [1] The tribunal was unique at that time, as it was the first court of its kind to deal with labour relations between the employer and the workers. [2] Previous conciliation measures between employer and worker were voluntary or based on the penal system through criminal sanctions. The conventional economic model is that employers and workers have the same bargaining power to set wages and conditions. [3] It is alleged that both parties are able to agree on a fair market price for labour costs, without distortion. However, if employers or workers unite, these results can be distorted, especially under “boom” or “bust” conditions. The purpose of the tribunal was to change the way employers and workers negotiated wages and conditions. This was an attempt to reduce power imbalances between employers or workers` unions resulting from the use of collective bargaining and the resulting use of that market power to influence wages, as well as to reduce the risk of lockouts or strikes to achieve these objectives. The failure of the current systems has prompted the New South Wales government to introduce a new way of managing labour disputes. Labour disputes should now be adjudicated by compulsory arbitration, not by voluntary mediation or wage commissions. The arbitral tribunal was established by the Industrial Arbitration Act 1901 (NSW), which came into force on 10 December 1901.

Some procedural issues had to be dealt with before the court could formally meet. After that, the court met for the first time on May 16, 1902. [9] The court was a registration court. The tribunal was composed of a president and two members. One member should be a representative of the employers and the other a representative of the workers. The President was to be a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The first President of the Court was the Honourable Justice Henry Cohen. [10] “I believe that those with the most experience with dishes will be the first to admit that their machine is not adapted to these issues. Not only are they overloaded with cases – and there would therefore be delays if urgency were of the utmost importance, if we were to prevent an industrial war – but their procedural forms and rules are not easy to deal with in dealing with these delicate issues, which are half or totally factual and which should be decided by the Tribunal, who is called upon to interpret a labour agreement. . .

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