New look at wages

Press, 26 July 1978, Page 6

New look at wages

The Government might allow the general wage order to be paid legally to all workers. The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said last evening that a report on the matter would come before the Cabinet on Monday, the Press Association reported from Wellington. The Employers’ Federation president (Mr K. Dobson) met Mr Muldoon and the Minister of I-abour (Mr Gordon) yesterday morning and put forward proposals that would permit the wage order to be passed on legally to all workers.

The Government agreed to look closely at the proposals. In the meantime the federation will ask its members not to pass the order on to the estimated 400,000 people who are on above-award wages and salaries. They are not entitled to receive the wage order until their wages are negotiated during the next 12 months. “We put certain points to them on the problems that have arisen, and I feel the Prime Minister probably accepts that some

areas that are concerning employers are not as clear as they might be,” said Mr Dobson. “We hope that consideration will be given to enable the problem to be rectified,” he said. The proposals put to the Government did not Involve a change in regulations. “We have not asked for any change in regulations. We believe the situation should be as in the past, with the wage order applying across the board at the discretion of each employer,” said Mr Dodson.