STATE PAY NEGOTIATIONS Greater Concessions By Employees

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32114, 9 October 1969, Page 18

STATE PAY NEGOTIATIONS Greater Concessions By Employees

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, Oct. 8. During 12 months of hard negotiations over salary and wage fixing procedures for the State services, the greater concessions were made by the representatives of the employees, the Acting Minister in Charge of the State Services (Mr Shand) said in Parliament today.

Mr Shand was opening the second reading debate on the State Services Remuneration and Conditions of Employment Bill, which implements virtually all of the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Salary and Wage Fixing Procedures for the Public Service.

Mr Shand said the bill would do much to relieve the tensions of public service pay negotiations. Among other things, the 63-clause bill provides for the replacement of the ruling rates survey as the basis for public service salary adjustments with a regular sixmonthly survey of wages and salaries.

Mr Shand said the advantages of a six-monthly survey were considered at the time of the 1962 State Services Act, but some doubt was felt then about the validity and reliability of these figures. However, in the light of another six years experience, the advantages of the sixmonthly survey was accepted by all parties. The regular adjustments on the new basis would be applied percentally, and the disadvantages of a 12-month period between adjustments and substantial retrospective payments would be avoided. The Minister described as a

“triumph of patience and good will” the agreement reached during the 12 months of negotiations after the report of the commission, on the setting up of the pay research unit, which is also provided for in the bill.

“It will now be a relatively simple matter to apply the results of each six-monthly survey,” he said. Discussing the negotiations on the report of the commission, the Minister said agreement did not mean that each of the parties was convinced the bill gave to him all that he asked for.

From the positions originally adopted, the employees had made the greater concession, but the Government had also made some concessions in adopting the recommenda-

. tions of the commission and . putting them forward as official proposals. Mr Shand said some of the most important provisions of the bill were those setting up a State Services Tribunal to which all matters which significantly affected interservice relativities must be referred. Single service tribunals, he said, were retained to deal with issues relating to individual branches of the State services. POST OFFICE The Government respected the strong desire of both employers and employees in the Post Office to remain largely independent of other State services. The bill left the Post Office with the ability to conduct its wage negotiations

within its existing machinery, while ensuring the degree of co-operation necessary In the broader issues with interservice implications. The bill also provided for special negotiating machinery for employees of hospital boards and provided for a Hospital Services Tribunal. There was some doubt in the minds of university authorities about clause 62 of the bill which was intended to no more than validate present procedures and permit such adjustments as might be desirable. It was intended, during the committee stages of the bill, to introduce an amended clause 62 to allay the unnecessary fears of the university authorities.

A number of other minor amendments would be made at that time.

Mr Shand paid a tribute to the parties to the negotiations held after the report of the commission, and to the chairman of the commission (Sir Thaddeus McCarthy). “BILL WELCOME”

Mr S. A. Whitehead (Lab., Nelson) said the Opposition welcomed the bill. The State was the biggest employer in the country with some 180,000 employees in 33 departments covered by the bill.

It was important, he said, for State employees to be able to see a bright future ahead, and for them to be encouraged to stay in the public service. The Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr H. Watt) said he hoped the bill would halt the loss of key employees in the State services to outside interests which offered higher salaries.

The previous ruling rate survey used for adjusting State service salaries with private enterprise had not been entirely successful, he Mr E. S. F. Holland (Nat, Fendalton) said the bill was evidence that the fears of some State service organisations that the Government would impose a wage fixing system were groundless. The Minister of Railways (Mr Gordon) said that the railways had lost many skilled tradesmen because one trade rate was paid in the railways. The payment of separate trade rates, as provided for in the trill, would help stop the loss of tradesmen.

The bill was given a second reading.