“Down tools" reaction deplored

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32708, 10 September 1971, Page 1

“Down tools" reaction deplored

“It is my opinion that i what has happened (in 1 industrial relations) we ’ can thank our news media for,” Mr N. M. West, the director of the Canterbury Employers’ Association, told a luncheon meeting yesterday of the Canterbury district of the Insurance Institute of New Zealand. Too much publicity had been given to what actually were minority groups, said Mr West “This has created a climate in which everybody thinks that it’s the ‘in’ thing to down tools'.” Mr West said that during 20 years with the employers’ association he had never known so much impatience among, workers. “We get to the stage now —it happened only yesterday —that when an employer does not make an immediate offer, the workers go home for 24 hours.”

The system of arbitration and conciliation which had

served New Zealand well for about 80 years was not intended to cope with situations such as this, said Mr West. Recent -troubles had shown this system to be inadequate. Until three, years ago the labour market had determined the amounts being paid to workers, generally much above the award wage, said Mr West. The gap was as much as 30 per cent. Part of the trouble was that awards usually were settled nationally. Auckland and Wellington, “two highcost areas by anybody’s stani dards,” were at odds with the , West Coast, and the award system was expected to cope with such extremes. Mainly because of the atti- > tude of the employers, it had . not been possible to close the , gap between the award wage and the wage actually paid to workers, he said. ■ - Then came the “nil deci- ' sion” of the 1968 wage case ■ —“which would best be for- ' gotten”—and from this arose i direct bargaining, with small I groups taking over the role

of unions and actually doing the asking of employers. “Now we have strike action, which normally is the last resort, actually becoming used in New Zealand as the first resort.” A result of this had been leap-frogging in wages; and Mr West said he believed that some groups had not wanted to reach a settlement with the employers on wages because they did not know from one day to the next whether a similar group in another area might be ahead. Under this pressure, direct bargaining had cracked, partly because of stringent economic conditions and partly because of over-full employment, although there still was no real unemployment in New Zealand, said : Mr West. Most industrial nations had suffered similar industrial unrest since 1966 too, he said. Those that had come out of their trouble best—t Sweden, West Germany, and to a lesser extent the Netherlands—were those with industrial' systems based on very strong union and employer groups.

Negotiations were orderly, and they “don’t get the sort of thing we have been experiencing during the last 18 months,” said Mr West When New Zealand employers had tried to make industrial awards respectable documents which could be relied upon as guides on wages, there had been relativity arguments which resulted in many awards being lifted out of all proportion, said Mr West. ■’ “I’m not saying that awards should not have been lifted. What I am saying is that the awards should not have got to the level they are at.”

The pressing problem today was to find an industrial relations system which would be respected by both sides and give relative stability, Mr West said. "We shouldn't expect everything to stand still, because we are always looking for a better standard of living. But we desperately-need a formula through which the worker can feel and the employer can feel that they are doing something worth while

when they are making a claim.** Mr West said there were many persons who believed that the Government should head a tripartite organisation with labour and employer representatives "to get us out of the mess we have got ourselves into now.”