Main industrial problems

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32975, 22 July 1972, Page 16

Main industrial problems

Unexplained absenteeism and a high labour turnover were the main industrial problems in New Zealand — not strikes and stoppages, said the secretary of the Auckland Clerical Workers’ Union (Mr B. T. Brooks) in Christchurch yesterday.

Speaking at a forum on organisational behaviour, organised by the Canterbury Accountancy Students’ Society, Mr Brooks said that the number of working days lost through unexplained absenteeism far outnumbered those lost by strikes or stoppages. New Zealand was an industrial society not coping with the pressures within society, he said.

Industrial unrest was not only measured in strikes and stoppages, but also in the number of mental break-

downs, the divorce rate, illegitimate births, urban neuroses, and the rate of labour turnover and absenteeism —in general and social obsolescence. AFTER STRIKES Mr Brooks said a lot more attention should be given to “post-strike theory.” An attempt should be made to solve the problems incurred in trying to live with a strike when everyone was back at work. Once the strikers had returned to work, everyone considered the trouble to be ended. Often it was only beginning, Mr Brooks said. Other speakers at the oneday forum were Mr B. D. Jamieson, an industrial psychologist, who presented a paper on motivation; Mr R. Lewis, a management consultant, who spoke about incentive schemes; and Mr W. D. J. Cotton, who addressed the forum on participative budgeting.