Democracy by degrees

Press, 11 July 1980, Page 18

Democracy by degrees

Industrial democracy in New Zealand will probably evolve gradually, and a Labour Government will support that idea rather than try to impose democracy on management and the workforce, according to the party’s shadow Minister of labour, Mr. T. K. Burke. Mr Burke told a management seminar organised by the Canterbury Employers’ Association that gradual development was necessary because trust could be built only gradually. He envisaged enabling legislation to support schemes which he thought would probably be started by management.

He said he would like to see unions, as they grew in size through amalgamation, organise - members’ pension funds, which would be an alternative

source of finance for industrial development. Mr W. Meldrum, who has been investigating employee involvement schemes in New Zealand for two years under the auspices of the Employers’ Federation, told the seminar that more emphasis was needed now on direct involvement of employees. New Zealand was “reasonably strong” in repre-sentative-type employee involvement, particularly in joint consultative committees, of which there had been considerable interest in the last few years.

More emphasis was needed on using the expertise of people who were actually doing the job on the shop floor.

A Wellington company had called in an expert to redesign a finished goods store and the expert had

spent some weeks studying the problem only to provide an unsatisfactory and expensive solution. The manager had then approached the staff of eight, who withing a week produced a workable answer based on their practical experience and common sense. *■ ” This illustrated the need to involve workers in decision-making and consultation, said Mr Meldrum. The federation will publish a booklet next month in which Mr Meldrum summarises the experiences of 12 firms which have tried employee involvement. They include the Christchurch firm of G. L. Bowron and Company, and the Hornby c a r d b oar d packaging branch of U.E.B. Industries, Ltd.