New Arbitration Court on pay?

Press, 9 December 1976, Page 17

New Arbitration Court on pay?

PA Napier The Government may reestablish a wage authority similar to the Arbitration Court as it was in 1967, the Minister of Labour (Mr Gordon) said. Speaking to the combined Napier-Hastings Chambers of Commerce, the Minister said that the Federation of Labour, employers, and State unions were working on a new format for wage fixing “The key will be to get some consensus on a positive proposal,” Mr Gordon said. “We hope we can put certain proposals to the parties so that we will have a basis for legislation that we can introduce and pass around the middle of next year.

“We have to tackle this matter very carefully, but a fair degree of good will has been established. There is a general view to return to a system similar to the arbitration Court in 1967, a kind of higher authority to hear wage orders and determine wage guidelines.”

This question would be negotiated early next year to prepare for the ending of the wage freeze in May. Mr Gordon said that some State servants were becoming overzealous in industrial matters.

The Minister said he had been disturbed by the recent trend in the State services on industrial matters and political issues.

“I would be failing in my duty if I did not indicate that,” he said. “They have democratic rights and so long as they carry them out I cannot object to that. “But I believe there is a growing trend for the paid servants, duly elected or appointed, to become a little overzealous in trying to get their names and associations to the forefront of industrial trouble.”

Mr Gordon said people who could act and talk rationally, and exercise their powers more responsibly, were needed in industrial relations.