Efforts to give more say to workers

Press, 12 October 1976, Page 3

Efforts to give more say to workers

PA Auckland Efforts to get a system of workers’ participation in management in New Zealand industry are being intensified.

“What we are looking for is a Kiwi co-operative . . .

New Zealand has to become a gigantic co-operative, simply because it can’t afford to be anything else,” Mr K. E. F. Grenney, president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce said yesterday. He heads a company that has built up “modest worker participation.” Moves to stimulate discussion include a paper presented on a study of the West German system of worker participation by Mr B. H. Picot, immediate past president of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.

The response to this paper surprised Mr Picot. He had 300 copies of it snapped up and, to meet the demand, another 1100 were printed. The chamber has per-

suaded Professor K> F s Walker, director of the International Institute for Labour Studies in Paris, to speak at a seminar in Auckland on October 27. The Auckland branch of the Institute of Industrial Engineers is to be addressed on the Swedish system and its application to New Zealand on October 22 by Mr W. R. Gordon, manager of industrial engineering, for N.Z. Forest Products at Kinleith.

A seminar on worker participation will be held by the Manufacturers’ Federation on October 21 during its annual conference in Auckland. “We have the initiative now and we must do something because time is running out,” said Mr Grenney. A tremendous restructuring of the economy was necessary through the ending of 120 years of “living under contract to Britain.” That task was not so fearful if people were willing. The problem was the rigidity of workers and man-

agement.- “Part of the answer to that was to burn name tags and start again.” Mr Grenney hoped that work by enthusiastic, dedicated people during the next few months would build a framework for a system applicable to New Zealand.

The Government would probably be requested to set aside some legislation to allow it to proceed. There was agreement that worker participation in New Zealand industry needed to be extended.

Sir Thomas Skinner, president of the Federation of Labour, said, “I think it’s the only way to get the production we need. But it means more than just handing out shares or offering a seat on the board. It means giving the workers a real say in their work.” The president of the Employers’ Federation (Mr D. G.. R. Stucliffe) said, “We feel that whatever is done needs to be a New Zealand model suited to our social and cultural conditions. One of the problems we have is the large number of small enterprises which often have had far greater worker participation than may be appreciated.”

Mr A.- J. Faulkner (Lab., Roskill) the former minister of Labour, said, “With modern technology the work place is becoming rather tedious. Greater worker involvement in decision-mak-ing, especially at supervising level, is a natural development and I think we have the right people and ingenuity to build our own system.”