MR HEWITT DISSENTS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 19 September 1959, Page 12

MR HEWITT DISSENTS

Price Index “Suspect”

“I am apposed to any order increasing wages being made as a result of this application. “I am most critical of my Colleagues’ decision in respect of incorporation.”

With this introduction, Mr W. N. Hewitt, the employers’ representative on the Court of Arbitration, records his dissenting opinion on the general wage increase and pronouncement on the incorporation of general orders ih award rates.

Though it could not be denied that from the date first set down for the hearing certain aspects of the economy had changed for the better, Mr Hewitt says, because of the comparative freedom from inflationary pressures during the last year or so, a general (he underlines the word) increase should have been declined. The ordinary processes of conciliation and arbitration were less disruptive to the economy.

“It has been shown that the consumers’ price index can be affected greatly by the expediency of special taxation,” he continues. “It has been shown that it can be radically changed at any time by the quite ethical application of common statistical practice. It became obvious during the hearing that the index is sus-. pect, not as an index, but as an instrument of wage fixation. “Distressing”

“A most distressing aspect is the decision to incorporate, in due course, the new general order. The applicant’s plea for the incorporation in rates of remuneration of the effect of any order made was so devoid of substance as to be virtually inarticulate. On the other hand, evidence in great detail by a number of employers pinpointed difficulties facing major industries vital to our economy, and was never seriously challenged. “I find neither justice nor reason in a decision that places any industry in jeopardy without most compelling need Workers who already have high earnings will get appreciable increases, others little or nothing.” Mr Hewitt describes this part of the decision as “contrary to the evidence, contrary to reason, of no value to some, a lavish concession to sectional interests.” He concludes by commenting: “The applicant has been made undeservedly happy by virtue of pinning its faith on St. Matthew, vii, 7,8, alone.” The quotation is: “Ask. and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. “For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”