Travel allowance would cost $6M

Press, 1 June 1977, Page 7

Travel allowance would cost $6M

i PA Wellington. A $2-a-day travel allowance to all freezing workers would cost the farming community $6.23M a season, according to Federated Farmers. In submissions to the committee of inquiry into a travel allowance for the freezing industry, the federation said the Wanganui branch of the Meat Workers’ Union had shown the additional cost per lamb i unit would be 15 cents. Mr M. R. Barnett, said on behalf of Federated Farmers, this estimate was taken at a time of the year when stock throughout was high, and was therefore a conservative estimate. Although the $2-a-day claim was originally made by the union, it is not now before the committee. But Mr Barnett said that it made an interesting comparison and was useful from that point of view. The average sheep farmer killed 1888 lamb units each season, and at 15 cents a lamb, a $2-a-day travel allowance would cost the average farmer $283. There was little doubt this figure would increase

as new rates were nego< tiated.

“Consequently it would be only a matter of time before a travel allowance would become an extremely costly item to the individual farmer through rhe killing and processing charges,” Mr Barnett said. Over the last three years, sheep farm costs had increased 66 per cent. Over the same period the cost of getting a 13.6 kg lamb from the farm gate to Smithfield had increased from $5.77 to $13.51, or by 134 per cent. The federation did not believe a special case for a travel allowance existed in the freezing industry and strongly opposed its introduction. Freezing workers had the freedom to choose where they worked, having taken into consideration such factors as remuneration and employment conditions applying in that area. “One such alternative is to live close to one’s place of employment or to accept the higher transport costs involved in choosing to live some distance from the work place,” he said. It might be argued that a few freezing workers

were located some distance from the nearest residential area and therefore the workers employed in those particular works had no choice but to travel to work each day. “It is also apparent that in many works where public transport is available, freezing workers are not using it to the extent which they could,” he said. Freezing workers employed " at Borthwicks’ Waingawa works in the Wairarapa have suggested a minimum weekly travel allowance of $19.73. The recommendation came in submissions from the Waingawa sub-branch of the Wellington branch of the Meat Workers’ Union to the committee of inquiry. The committee is hearing final submissions in Wellington this week. The sub-branch secretary (Mr H. Te Karu) suggested the mimimum rate for the travel allowance should be calculated at 20.96 per cent of the minimum adult rate specified in the freezing workers’ award. This worked out at $19.73 a week, and he said it should be increased by movements in the consumers’ price index.