Procedures For Wage-Fixing

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31770, 29 August 1968, Page 20

Procedures For Wage-Fixing

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 28.

The Minister of Labour (Mr Shand) has invited worker and employer representatives to meet him to discuss the best means to follow in considering wage-fixing procedures.

The invitation arises from the refusal of a general wage order in June, subsequent industrial unrest, and the agreement between the Federation of Labour and the Employers’ Federation that the Economic Stabilisation Regulations should be amended.

The meeting will take place after the return of Mr T. E. Skinner, president of the Federation of Labour, and the Secretary of Labour (Mr N. S. Woods) from the International Labour Organisation’s Asian regional conference in Tokyo next month. Mr Shand recalled yesterday that the representatives of the Federation of Labour and the Employers’ Federation agreed at a meeting on July 16 that the Economic Stabilisation Act, and regulations and amendments, needed “a complete overhaul."

They had asked the Government to convene a meeting of their organisations to consider and report on the matter.

Mr Shand said the Government had accepted this recommendation, and accordingly he had written to Mr Skinner and to Mr P. J. Luxford, executive director of the Employers’ Federation, suggesting a preliminary meeting with the Secretary of Labour and himself.

The meeting would work out the best procedure to follow in discussing the joint recommendation of the two federations.

Mr Shand said that he had advised Mr Skinner and Mr Luxford that besides discussions between their two organisations, there would have to be opportunity for wider discussion by other interested parties before the Government could make any decision.