National Dock Labour Board v British Steel Corporation
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Lord Reid,Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest,Lord Hodson,Lord Simon of Glaisdale,Lord Cross of Chelsea |
| Judgment Date | 13 December 1972 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [1972] UKHL J1213-1 |
| Date | 13 December 1972 |
| Court | House of Lords |
[1972] UKHL J1213-1
House of Lords
Lord Reid
Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest
Lord Hodson
Lord Simon of Glaisdale
Lord Cross of Chelsea
Upon Report from the Appellate Committee, to whom was referred the Cause National Dock Labour Board against British Steel Corporation, that the Committee had heard Counsel as well on Wednesday the 25th, as on Thursday the 26th and Monday the 30th, days of October last, as on Wednesday the 1st and Thursday the 2d, days of November last, upon the Petition and Appeal of the National Dock Labour Board of 22-26, Albert Embankment, London, S.E.1, praying that the matter of the Order set forth in the Schedule thereto, namely an Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal of the 29th of July 1971, might be reviewed before Her Majesty the Queen, in Her Court of Parliament, and that the said Order might be reversed, varied or altered, and that the two Orders of a Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice both of the 8th of June 1970 might be restored or that the Petitioners might have such other relief in the premises as to Her Majesty the Queen, in Her Court of Parliament, might seem meet; as also upon the Case of the British Steel Corporation, lodged in answer to the said Appeal; and due consideration had this day of what was offered on either side in this Cause:
It is Ordered and Adjudged, by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Court of Parliament of Her Majesty the Queen assembled, That the said Order of Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, of the 29th day of July 1971, complained of in the said Appeal, be, and the same is hereby Set Aside: And it is hereby Declared, That (1) The land upon which the jetty is situated and over which the belt conveyor system runs up to the boundary of the Respondents' stock yard is within the Port of Port Talbot to which the Dock Workers Employment Scheme 1967 applies; (2) All work done in the holds of ships discharging at the jetty is dock work for the purposes of the Scheme; (3) None of the following work is dock work, namely, driving the unloaders on the jetty, attending the belt conveyor system and the piling of ore in the stockyard: And it is further Ordered, That the Appellants do pay, or cause to be paid, to the said Respondents one-half of the Costs incurred by them in the Court of Appeal, in the Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice and in the Industrial Tribunal, and also one-half of the Costs incurred by them in respect of the said Appeal to this House, the amount of such last-mentioned Costs to be certified by the Clerk of the Parliaments: And it is also further Ordered, That the Cause be, and the same is hereby, remitted back to a Divisional Court of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice, to do therein as shall be just and consistent with this Judgment.
My Lords,
I have had an opportunity of reading the speech of my noble and learned friend, Lord Cross of Chelsea. I agree with it and I would therefore make the order which he proposes.
My Lords,
The Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1946, enabled schemes to be made which (a) would ensure greater regularity of employment for dock workers and (b) would secure that an adequate number of dock workers would be available for the efficient performance of the work of dock workers. Broadly stated, the employment of dock workers was in certain places to be regulated by provided (i) that no employer could employ a dock worker unless he (the employer) was a registered employer and (ii) that a registered employer could only employ as a dock worker one who was a registered dock worker. The phrase "dock worker" is one capable of being generally understood but it was given a statutory definition (see s. 6). The definition is a wide one. It in turn picks up the definitions (see s. 6) of "cargo" and of "port". So a dock worker means a person (a) employed or (b) to be employed (c) in or (d) in the vicinity of (e) any place at which ships are loaded or unloaded (f) on work in connection with the loading or the unloading or the movement or the storage (g) of anything carried or to be carried in any ship or vessel or (h) on work in connection with the preparation of ships or other vessels for the receipt or discharge of anything carried or to be carried in any ship or vessel or (i) on work in connection with the preparation of ships or other vessels for leaving any place at which ships are loaded or unloaded.
If anyone went today to Port Talbot he would see large ships proceeding to a jetty in the tidal basin and he would learn that such ships carried iron ore and that such iron ore was to be taken from the holds of the ships and placed in a nearby storage area or stock yard so that from there it should later be taken away to blast furnaces. Anyone who had read the definition of a dock worker might be pardoned for thinking, if a scheme was applicable, that those employed in connection with the movement of the iron ore from the holds of the ships to the storage area were dock workers who could only be be employed if they were registered dock workers. But such a person would have to be told that he must not reach conclusion until, with unfaltering step, he has picked his way successfully through the copious words of the Dock Labour Scheme for the South Wales Ports which was made in 1942 under the Essential Work (Dock Labour) Order, 1941, and which for the meanings of some of its expressions incorporated by reference the words of the Port of Port Talbot Registration Amended Scheme as re-amended and until he has mastered the wording of the amended national scheme which is called the Dock Workers Employment Scheme 1967. If he is told that in the long trail through the Industrial Tribunal and then the Diviisonal Court and then the Court of Appeal, different paths have been trodden and sometimes with a divergence between members of the same tribunal or court, he will embark on his journey towards a conclusion with caution and with no little misgiving.
The Dock Labour Scheme for the South Wales Ports was made in 1942: it was made under the Essential Work (Dock Labour) Order, 1941. The opening words of the Scheme recite that "The Ports and the Areas covered by this Scheme are set out in the Appendix". The Appendix recites that for the purposes of the Scheme "the expression 'Port' shall include the following places". Included in six "places" was Port Talbot—All the "Dock Estate". So "all the dock estate" was included within the Port or the Area covered by the Scheme. When in 1947 the first national Scheme was made under the Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act, 1946, the Scheme (see 1947 S.R. & O. No. 1189) providedinter alia (see clause 1(3)) that it should relate to the ports set out in Appendix 1. The Appendix included certain South Wales Ports including "Port Talbot". It further laid down in the Appendix that port meant the area of that port as laid down by or under any Act, Order in Council, provisional order or other statutory enactment passed or made with reference to that port except where otherwise defined for the purposes of any dock labour scheme in which case it should have the meaning set out in that dock labour scheme. The Dock Labour Scheme as set out above, covered "Port Talbot—All the Dock Estate". So the national Scheme related to "Port Talbot—All the Dock Estate". The question which arises is whether the words "All the Dock Estate" denote only the exact confines of what might be called the Docks at Port Talbot as they existed in 1942 or whether the words denote what would rationally be refered to at any given time and from time to time as the Dock Estate. It is said that until the recent developments ships had to pass through a dock sate or dock entrance in order to reach the various wharves or bases or berths where ships were loaded or unloaded and that this pointed to the view that the words "all the Dock Estate" must be given the narrower meaning. In my view, this is far too restricted and it puts too limited a construction upon the word "dock". It is to be remembered that the 1942 Scheme is a Dock Labour Scheme for the South Wales ports. The words "All the Dock Estate" are, in my view, used to denote that all the areas devoted to the work of what might be called the Port of Port Talbot were places within the Scheme. The Scheme was concerned with port transport workers who were doing "port transport work" within the Port of Port Talbot. The use of the word "dock" in the phrase "All the Dock Estate" was not designed to draw some sharp distinction in Port Talbot between the port of Port Talbot and the docks in the port of Port Talbot. Rather does the phrase denote all the area within which from time to time dock or port work is carried on at Port Talbot. It is to be noted also that the 1942 Dock Labour Scheme requires for the ascertainment of the meaning of "port transport work" a reference to the "Port" Registration Scheme. The words "dock" and "Port" seem in some places to be interchangeable. The Dock Workers (Registration of Employment) Act, 1946, defines a "dock" worker as one who works in or in the vicinity of any "port" and a "port" as including any place at which ships are loaded or unloaded. While the 1947 Scheme (and the subsequent 1967 Scheme) relate to the "ports" as set out in the Appendix which in turn picks up the words "port Talbot—All the Dock Estate"; those latter words, in my view, mean the dock or port area as it is at any given time and from time to time.
For these reasons in agreement with the Divisional Court I consider that the port of Port Talbot includes the whole area south and west of the continuous red line on the map used at the various hearings.
I pass then to consider the second...
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