Rebuff on wage talks defended

Press, 29 May 1982, Page 3

Rebuff on wage talks defended

PA Wellington The rejection of the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) of a request by the Federation of Labour for talks on a wages policy to resume was not surprising, said the acting executive director of the Employers' Federation, Mr Ray Taylor, yesterday. Mr Muldoon released on Thursday, the text of a letter he had sent to the federation and the Combined State Unions in which he expressed "disappointment and disillusion" over the unions' outright rejection of proposals for a wage-tax tradeoff.

Mr Taylor said. “Failure of the F.O.L. and the C.S.U. to deliver an -agreement on the wage-tax trade-off has

greatly damaged prospects for any further tripartite negotiations. He said that years of meetings and work "went down the drain when the unions said no to the tradeoffdeal.'’

Mr Taylor said that the result was that the unions had lost credibility with the Government and had done a great disservice to their members. New Zealand, and the cause of reform of the wage-fixing system. "At no time during the talks did the unions make even the slightest concession. We had a situation which was all take and no give. Consequently, there can be no blame on the Government

and employers for being disillusioned." The C.S.U.’s president, Mr D. H. Thorp, said that the wage-tax discussions had not occupied two years and a half. They had started in 1981, had been ended, and had then been resumed by the Government. “The wage-tax trade-off was discussed for months, and we went into them under a threat of wage controls," Mr Thorp said. “During the discussions, the Prime Minister abused the F.O.L. president. Mr Jim Knox, and accused him of not understanding algebra, whatever relevance that might have. How the Government expected to reach

agreement with that kind of approach defies credibility." Mr Thorp said that Mr Muldoon had refused to discuss a wider wages policy from the time that he had introduced the wage-tax trade-off concept. Mr Muldoon had failed to give ansawers to the federation and the C.S.U. that were acceptable to them on wider and paramount issues related to any agreement on a wagetax deal. "Clearly, throughout the discussions, the Prime Minister was only interested in that wage-tax trade-off: he failed even to entertain any other issues," Mr Thorpe said. The C.S.U. had rejected the wage-tax trade-off at present

on the ground that the climate for it was not appropriate. but the C.S.U. had left its options open. Wage controls were anticipated. and there was considerable confusion regarding the likely taxation content of this year’s Budget. For wage and salary earners simply to "stand still." a wage movement of 21 per cent was needed for this year. If the 10 per cent increase that the Minister of Trade and Industry (Mr Templeton) considered to be realistic was imposed, the real income of wage earners would drop dramatically. The secretary of the federation, Mr K. G. Douglas, declined to comment.