Reductions made in pay applications

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32972, 19 July 1972, Page 3

Reductions made in pay applications

(.New Zealand t Press Association)

AUCKLAND, Julv 18.

Most of the applications for wage increases reaching the Remuneration Authority were excessive, the chief executive i officer of the authority said today.

Mr G. L. Jackson said in Auckland that the typical application asked for a 10 per cent wage increase, and would probably suffer a reduction of 2 to 3 per cent. Defining the typical wage ■ increase application to a meeting of the Auckland division of the Institute of Management, Mr Jackson said it would: Be submitted by a company on behalf of about 25 to 30 employees. Show that each employee had a wage increase last year of about 7 per cent. Ask for an increase now of about 10 per cent, or in some cases more be-1

cause of promotion, examination success, or increased responsibilities. Mr Jackson said that from April 1, the Remuneration Authority had received a : total of 1116 applications for i wage increases, “and an awful lot of these came from Auckland.” The most difficult example kof a “serious anomaly” to be proved to his staff was that ~ based on an outside rate—jiwhen one company wanted to bring the salary paid to one of its employees up to ' the level paid by another '■ firm. “The authority is primarily concerned with wage f movement. We are not so. 11 well equipped to assess wage I levels,” he said.