Employers Oppose Wage Order

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 3

Employers Oppose Wage Order

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, September 19.

In the last two years wage and salary earners had received a greater proportion of the “national cake” and this share was about equal to the highest share previously received, which was 61.1 per cent in 1961, the employers’ advocate (Mr P. J. Luxford) told the Court of Arbitration today.

He was presenting the employers’ submissions on the application by the New Zealand Carpenters’ Union for a 9.5 per cent general wage order.

Mr Luxford said that the Court would not be justified in reaching the conclusion that a further general wage order was necessary to restore any previous relationship that wage and salary earners had enjoyed.

He said that data showed that the total share of private income received by wage and salary earners would be at least 6 per cent for 1965-66, while the share received by companies would reduce slightly from 12.9 per cent to 12.7 per cent. Full Dav

Mr Luxford took the full day in presenting his 90 pages of submissions. Presiding is the Judge of the Arbitration Court, Judge Blair. With him are the employers’ member of the Court. Mr W. N. Hewitt, and the workers’ member of the Court, Mr A. B. Grant. The application is being made by the president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E Skinner), and it is being supported by the New Zealand Public Service Association, which is represented by its general secretary (Mr D. P Long). Mr Luxford said that though the degree of rationality associated with gambling

might not in all individual cases be a reflection of a person’s financial ability to stand the loss of money, the national trend of the Totalisator Agency Board figures showed an extraordinarily close relationship between these investments and the additional money made available by new general orders. He produced a table that showed the general orders since 1954, the annual totalisator increase and the successive changes in turn-over from the previous year.

The table showed that a substantial increase occurred in the calendar year immediately after each order and that in each year with one exception, the turn-over was down in the year that the general order was made. Britain And E.E.C. All the indications pointed clearly to the fact that it was not so much a question of whether Britain would join the European Economic Community but when she would do so, he said. Mr Luxford told the Court that with minor exceptions the problems for New Zealand with Britain in the E.E.C. would be as grave now as they would have been had Britain entered Europe in 1962-63. Mr Luxford said that in 1962 Britain’s entry into the E.E.C. appeared imminent and the Court then said that it did not regard the question “as irrelevant to the issues before it.” Wider Market Mr Luxford conceded that a wider European market would exist for,some of New Zealand’s primary products, as the Government Statistician (Mr J. V. T. Baker) had said, but considered there would almost certainly be more serious difficulties for New Zealand thr.-i Mr Baker had indicated. Mr Luxford said that the present state of Britain’s economy had a major influence on the profitability of New Zealand’s exports and would continue to do so for the coming months possibly a longer period. He saw the possibility “by no means remote,” because of the very close ties between the New Zealand pound and sterling it was difficult not to believe that if sterling were devalued. New Zealand would not have to follow suit. Devaluation of the New Zealand pound, he said, would have widespread effect on New Zealand’s trade with other countries.

Mr Luxford said that since the first quarter of 1964 there had been a decline in the terms of trade index figure of 5.4 per cent for all exports. He submitted that the Court would not be realistic if it assumed that New Zealand’s future terms of trade were to become more favourable because of reductions in the prices of New Zealand’s imports. Overseas Loans

“At present the state of our overseas reserves and balance of payments is so serious that even to maintain our present living standards will require either substantial overseas borrowing or further corrective measures by the Government in the monetary and/or fiscal fields,” said Mr Luxford.

Mr Luxford cited figures of hourly rates of pay in surveyed industries which showed increases between April, 1964, and April, 1966, ranging from 9.5 per cent for forestry, logging, mining and quarrying to 13.4 per cent for building materials and furnishing industries. Percentage Share He submitted that wage and salary earners had improved their percentage share and although it earlier appeared that the share received by companies had increased in the last two years, the new statistics just released did not confirm this.

Wage and salary payments in the two years to 1966 had increased by 22.8 per cent, personal farming income by 5.1 per cent, manufacturing by 11.8 per cent, professional income by 15.8 per cent, company income before distribution by 16.4 per cent, and total private income before tax by 17 per cent. The Court adjourned until 10 a.m. tomorrow.