WAGES AND COSTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 23, 28 January 1937, Page 9

WAGES AND COSTS.

EMPLOYERS , CONCERN.

"DICTATION" BY MINISTER.

THE FREBZXHO SETTLEMENT

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

CHRISTCHURCH, Wednesday.

Concern about the' reported manner in which a settlement of the freezing workers' dispute was reached by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, is expressed in a statement issued to-day by the executive of the Canterbury Employers' Association. The statement is as follows:—

"The executive of the Canterbury Employers' Association ie receiving from its members numerous inquiries whether it is wise on the part of individual employere to resist pressure from trade unions and their secretaries and Government officials, for expensive increased benefits to workers, or whether it would be wiser on their part, if they wished to escape future penalisation in some form, to accede quietly to these demands and endeavour to push on to the public the extra costs which they are forced to incur by increasing their prices. Flouting the Law. "They are deeply concerned by the report of the settlement arrived at in the freezing industry in Wellington on January 22," continues the statement, "as it is obvious from reports of the terme of agreement that the employers signed it only because of the Minister's 'direction, , and it appears as if they were afraid of worse things happening to them by 'direction' of the Government if they refused this Ministerial direction. "Although the report endeavours very cleverly to surround the settlement with a pleasant atmosphere—even to the childish dragging in by the Minister of the personal attitude to himself of the parties of both sides, culminating in a vote of thanks—the stark position is that the Court of Arbitration, working under the \ T ew Zealand law, has decided upon an award, and the workers involved, presuming on the friendship of the Labour party in power, many of whom are old trade union secretaries or •officers, have defied the law by refusing , to work under the award, and have taken possession forcibly of the employers' premises in order to make their defiance of the law more effective. "Brandishing a Threat." "The Minister has given them the battle by promising that, if they go back to work, he will alter the Arbitration Court's awards by special lofrislation; and, goimr into a conference of employers brandishing this threat, he fails to move the employers from the terms of a fair and legal award by argument, so that, to save Ins face and maintain the relationship of the Government with the unions roncrriiod. ho lias to issue a 'direction' iiiToasiiiT the hourly pay under the award by 3d. ■ "This 'direction' is dictation, and every employer in New Zealand now knows that, after he has put forth , the plain facts of hie business in conciliation council, and again before the Arbitration Court, and the'Arbitrntion Court has decided fairly and equitably and bound the employere by its findings, whatever the unions cannot get by argument and the equitable nroeess of the arbitration laws they will sneceed in petting bv political pressure through the dictatorship of the Minister of Labour. Movements of Prices. "The anxiety of employers is increasing because of the fact that, in the latest Government Abstract of Statistics, all New Zealand prices and over-v eeas prices are shown to be lower than they were in 1926—export prices to the extent of 15 per cent and import prices to the extent of 25 per cent. The only fisrures which are hiiher than those of 1926 are adult wage rates, which are shown to be 4.6 per cent higher.

"Tt would reassure thnee who have the burden and responsibility of keenin? the trade and business of New Zealand goirts , ." the statement concludes, "if the ostensible reliance upon reason and equitv by the Government could be translated into action, without dictation and 'direction' being kept in the cnohoard as an ultimate weapon by the Government agninst sound argument and industrial law."