Cost Of Wage Claim £97m

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 1

Cost Of Wage Claim £97m

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 9. A 9.5 per cent increase would cost about £97 million for a full year, the Government Statistician (Mr J. V. T. Baker) told the Court of Arbitration today.

The cost of the increase to all Government employees, excluding employees of hospital and education boards and Govern-ment-owned corporations. would be £lB million, he said when the Court resumed the general wage order hearing.

Under cross-examination, IMr Baker said he did not accept as a general proposition that if wage and salaryearners were granted an increase, it would be at the expense of some other section of the community.

Mr Baker was answering 29 questions asked at an earlier sitting of the Court.

Asked if the 1964 general wages increase of 6 per cent was responsible for the present overseas funds problem, Mr Baker said: “Definitely not. It is a contributing in- ! fluence but not a major one.” He said any action which raised incomes tended to raise the value of imports. But he had not noticed that a general wage order had ever created a shortage of goods and services. Asked if this would continue to be the case in view of the overseas funds situation, Mr Baker said: “The situation roughly in New Zealand is that income and expenditures are too high compared with export earnings. “The question is, where do the corrective measures start?”

He agreed with Mr Skinner that figures he had provided showed that the cost of building sections in the four main centres had increased by about 31 per cent from £1054 to £I3BO between the first half of 1962 and the second half of 1965.

Mr Baker said the present nominal wage index was not as accurate an indication as could be obtained of minimum rates of pay within the court’s jurisdiction. The Statistics Department intended to provide two indexes as a result of the present revision.

He expected the revision would be completed next year, providing present staff could be retained on the work and no unforseen problems arose. The Court has adjourned to September 19, when it will hear submissions from the

employers’ and manufacturers’ representatives. The chairman of the Monetary and Economic Council (Mr E. D. Wilkinson) will be called as an expert witness for the employers when the hearing is resumed. He will give evidence on the economy.