Solicitor's profession not an industry under labour law; disputes with staff fall outside industrial dispute jurisdiction.

The profession of a solicitor was held not to be an "industry" under the Industrial Disputes Act because the statutory terms "business", "trade", "undertaking" and "calling" do not extend to a learned profession driven mainly by the practitioner's personal skill, knowledge and judgment. The scheme of the Act was read as requiring a real master-servant relationship and combined labour in an enterprise, which was absent here because the staff performed only ministerial tasks such as typing and bookkeeping. The dispute was therefore not an industrial dispute, and the Industrial Tribunal had no jurisdiction.

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Issues: Whether the profession of a solicitor is an industry within the meaning of the Industrial Disputes Act, and whether the dispute between the solicitors and their employees was therefore an industrial dispute capable of reference to the Industrial Tribunal.

Analysis: The definition of industry in Section 2(j) of the Act was construed in its context and in light of the ordinary concept of industry as involving co-operation between employer and employee. The words business, trade, undertaking and calling were held not to extend to a learned profession carried on essentially by the personal skill, knowledge and judgment of the practitioner. The reference to employer and workmen in the statutory scheme was treated as importing a real relationship of master and servant within an enterprise requiring joint labour. A solicitor's work was found to depend predominantly on his own intellectual and professional effort, while the staff performed only ministerial tasks such as typing and bookkeeping. Such activity lacked the combined effort necessary to constitute an industry.

Conclusion: The profession of a solicitor is not an industry within the meaning of the Act, and the dispute between the respondents and their employees was not an industrial dispute. The Tribunal rightly declined jurisdiction.

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