183 / 736
would not reform the Trade Union structure. The
unions most resisted at present by employers were
the white collar unions, at a time when technical
change was
tending towards white collar pre-
dominence in many sectors.
The Institutions of Labour
The main question here was whether there
should be legal intervention of a major type such
as compulsory arbitration. The Professor felt it
unlikely that legislation along these lines would
be suggested by the Royal Commission, the more
likely solution being the appointment of one or
more men with the task of looking at procedures
here, and proposing regularly methods by which
they could be improved. He hinted that these
industrial "ombudsmen" could be trouble shooters
for industry as a whole at procedural level.
Collective Agreements
The main issue here was whether or not these
agreements should be
legally enforceable. One
possibility was that employers be given the right
to exact penalites from a union if its members
stepped out of line, though this was objected to
in principle as it involved "making peace-men of
union officials". It would be more logical to allow
legal sanctions against
the workers
themselves,
perhaps in the form of deductions from pay with
this penalty to follow the worker even
if he
changes his
job. It is, however, possible
that
unions would refuse to negotiate collective agree
ments in the face of such sanction. To counter
this it was suggested by some that agreements
should be a statutory procedure enforced against
union and employer alike.
Strike Law
Professor Wedderburn pointed out that against
the background of
interlocutory injunctions
it
was becoming harder for Trade Unions to take
even official strike action. In Britain many major
decisions in this field were awaited, some of them
with implications for the whole structure of labour
law.
STARTING A BUSINESS IN SWEDEN
Mr. Ormonde Goldie a Conferee at the Inter
national Bar Association Conference in July has
published a pamphlet on the above topic. Mr.
Goldie
is a solicitor in Stockholm and in his
pamphlet discusses some of the practical aspects
of forming a subsidary company in Sweden. De
claration papers necessary are similar to those
required in Ireland and Mr. Goldie discusses such
topics as share capital, directors,
limitation of
dividends, guaranteed tax liability and partner
ship.
There are, however, certain restrictions which
are outlined by Mr. Goldie relating primarily to
the purchase of property in Sweden. Special per
mission for the acquisition of property must be
obtained from the King in Council by foreigners.
He assures readers that the authorities are very
liberal in issuing permits to foreign compamies
wishing
to acquire factories or industrial pro
perties for the operation of a business. According
to the Swedish Stock Corporation Act the mem
bers of the Board of Directors and the Managing
Director must be Swedish citizens
resident
in
Sweden. This also applies to anyone authorized
to sign for the Company. It is however possible
to receive permision from the Board of Com
merce for one third of the members of the Board
of Directors to be foreign nationals.
Photocopies of the pamphlet may be had on
application
to
the Secretary of
the Society-
price 2/6d.
"BIRDS OF A FEATHER"
A recent case reported in 2 All E.R. 1968 at
page 421 was concerned with the protection of
Birds Act, 1954 and the sale of a Bramblefinch
hen. The appellant was a Mr. Partridge and
solicitors engaged in the case were Messrs. Pea
cock and Goddard.
CASES OF THE MONTH
Solicitor's delay
In
March, 1959
the plaintiff's, a building com
pany, began work on extensions to a private house
for the defendant F, manager of a company which
in 1962 went into liquidation. The plaintiffs were
not paid for all their work and at first applied to
the company for the balance, but in
June 1962
issued a writ claiming against F £7,719
for
materials and work done on the house. F's de
fence was that he was not personally liable. The
plaintiff's solicitors took no action for
9 months.
F then indicated that he might wish to introduce
third party proceedings but after
2 years' delay
abandoned that plan and in mid 1965 his solici
tors changed tactics and asked for particulars of a
new issue challenging the amount of work done
and its costs. Further delay ensued while parti-
41