Drivers’ pay claim defended by Labour
PA Wellington The Drivers’ Federation award claim of 22 per cent was not large and unrealistic, the Opposition spokesman on labour, Mr F. M. Gerbic, has said. Mr Gerbic was responding to comments made by the Minister of Labour (Mr Bolger) criticising the drivers over the claim. Mr Gerbic said the drivers claimed 20 per cent in 1980, after a first-quarter record inflation rate of 18.4 per cent. . “This year’s general drivers’ award claim, one of the trendsetters for other awards, recognises the effect inflation has had on the. cost of living.”
Mr Gerbic quoted a report prepared by Business and Economic Research, Ltd, saying that if prices rose by 17.5 per cent in 1982-83, wages would have to increase by well over 20 per cent to ensure that wage earners were no worse off. He said that the claim had been laid on the basis of after-tax income and the drivers would have to have a substantial increase to ensure that they had the same spending power after they paid'the extra tax.
Mr Gerbic said Mr Bolger’s interference in the wage talks was as abhorrent to good industrial relations as a Minister of Justice interfering with the courts.
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Press, 21 May 1982, Page 18
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205Drivers’ pay claim defended by Labour Press, 21 May 1982, Page 18
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