Wages offer not acceptable but Beehive talks still on

Press, 5 August 1980, Page 1

Wages offer not acceptable but Beehive talks still on

PA Wellington The 13 per cent wage movement offer by the Government was not acceptable to the Federation of Labour, said the federation’s president, Mr W. J. Knox, yesterday.

However, the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) last evening refused either to confirm or deny that 13 per cent had been proposed. Nevertheless, wage policy talks at Parliament tomorrow could still end in agreement in spite of their rejection by union advocates yesterday, industrial observers in Wellington feel. The Remuneration Act remains the key. The Government has offered to suspend it if the F.O.L. accepts 13 per cent on top of the 4 per cent August wage order. Union sources last evening said that the F.O.L. had been told that the act would be repealed if there was an agreement to limit wage increases to 13 to 14 per cent. This would be an interim measure while efforts continued to make more progress. on long-term measures such as amalgamation -of unions into industry groupings:

There would also be an undertaking that the federation would be able to put its case for a minimum living wage to the Arbitration Court next March or April., F.O.L. advocates met yesterday in Wellington as one big union, the drivers, was already well into wage negotiations due to . resume on Thursday. Their meeting rejected the 13 per cent proposal, and reindorsed opposition to the Remuneration Act and support .for the minimum living wage concept.

Mr Knox said later that if a wage deal was not finalised tomorrow he thought that would be the end of the talks. Unions would go ahead with claims of up to 35 per cent, he said. The 35 per cent includes a catch-up for the amount unions say wages have slipped behind the cost of living, plus an amount to cover the estimated inflation rate.

No progress at Parliament tomorrow could see the Drivers’ Federation increasing its claim from 20 per cent to 35 per cent in the face of their employers’ offer of 11.5 per cent. Two other big unions, the electrical workers and the engineers, have claims for 35 per cent for two of their awards.

Some union leaders have privately voiced doubts about public acceptance of 35 per cent. A slightly increased Government guideline, plus the 4 per cent now be'ing paid, and a promise to allow the F.O.L. to present its case for a big increase in the minimum wage, may satisfy them, observers feel. The Government might plan to ; t suspend—not repeal—the . Remuneration Act in order to lever in a wages policy. But the suggestion ' of suspension rather than repeal has been firmly, rejected by Mr Knox. “I make it very plain that : repeal of the act is essential from the unions’ viewpoint. In fact, at present. I cannot, see any agreement coming on wages,” he said yesterday. In. Auckland,, employers representatives have predicted a big confrontation

between employers and unions over claims for a 35-hour working week later this year. They say a strong union campaign can be expected after similar moves by drivers in Australia and Britain.

Already the Engineers’ Union and the Electrical Workers’ Union have given notice they will seek a 35hour week, with no loss of pay, when their awards are renegotiated soon.. But the national employers’ advocate for the metal trades industry,'Mr P. Carroll, says: “There’s no way the emploers will wear it.”

Many union leaders see the shorter week as a practical means of allowing more people to work,’ and the secretary, of the Electrical Workers’ Union (Mr A.- J. Neary) predicts, the working week could be restricted to 20 hours by the end of the century.