Call For Use Of Female Labour

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32298, 16 May 1970, Page 44

Call For Use Of Female Labour

(New Zealand Press Association > WELLINGTON, May 15. New Zealand must make greater use of all its labour resources, including a potential female labour force of about 70,000 persons, said the Minister of Industries and Commerce (Mr Shelton) in Auckland todav.

Mr Shelton, in an address to an Institute of Management work-study conference, said that an adequate labour force bore a direct relationship to the productivity of capital.

; “If, for example, our (machines are being ] under-used because of ; (labour shortages, there i (cannot be effective use ■ of all resources,” he said. J Mr Shelton said that in- j creasing productivity was | essentially a responsibility of management. ]

“Improving productivity, means using better equipment, better methods, and better management techniques in combining resources,” he said. “As well, it means the development of the sort of environment which will enable and encourage people to acquire and apply the skills needed." Mr Shelton suggested that productivity was “the ratio

of all available goods and services to the available resources of the country." Trying to measure productivity only in terms of output per man, per man-hour, per unit of labour-time, was misleading, he said. “The biggest mistake we can all make is to expect the other fellow to work harder, and call that increasing productivity,” he said. “If I try to dig my garden with a rusty, worn shovel I can be working very hard, and getting nowhere. Most of us think we can deal with a situation like that.” The very existence of business enterprise was dependent on efficient operation and the productivity of the firm compared with that of I its rivals. Better use of re- : sources, manpower, materials, machines, and money meant less waste.

Management should realise that change required co-oper-ation with unions. Productivity agreements could make a valuable contribution.