Journalists’ award talks break down

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 3

Journalists’ award talks break down

PA Wellington Negotiations for a new daily newspaper journalists’ award broke down in Wellington yesterday. The president of the Journalists’ Union (Mr B. G. Joyce) said later that a special meeting of its national council had been held and councillors would report back to the members as soon as possible. Mr Joyce said that union members were now being paid substantially less than the relative wage levels awarded them by Sir Arnold Nordmever in 1972. "This had been confirmed by Government figures produced by Mr J. V. T. Baker, a former head of the Department of Statistics,” said Mr Joyce. “The employers have! not been prepared to accept these.” The chairman of the industrial committee of the Newspaper Publishers’ Association (Mr K. J. Stinson) said he’ regretted that the talks had| broken down over an acceptable formula for calculating a wage increase. The employers had hoped that conciliation would con-i tmue but the journalists had chosen to withdraw their!

claims, he said. At the time of the breakdown, there had been a number of offers on wages and conditions put to the journalists, after six days of discussion. The employers recognised that there were difficulties associated with resolving the wages question but were still prepared to continue the talks, Mr Stinson said. Instead of withdrawing, the union could have chosen to take the matter to the Arbitration Court. The employers would have been happy to have the court adjudicate but under the law they could not initiate such action.