F.O.L. $20 wage claim rejected by Government

Press, 19 November 1982, Page 1

F.O.L. $20 wage claim rejected by Government

PA Wellington The Government has refused a trade union demand for a $2O a week wage rise for all wage and salary earners, and beneficiaries.

A packed special trade union conference on the wage freeze yesterday gave unanimous backing to the demand and a mandate to the Federation of Labour’s executive to call for supporting industrial action. “It is not justified,” said the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, after a two-hour meeting with the F.O.L. executive last evening. Mr Muldoon described last month’s tax reductions as being of “major proportions” and said the Government had made it clear these were to off-set price increases. The F.O.L. had put the wage claim, together with a call for a special govern-ment-funded body to review the entire wage-fixing system, to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, at the Beehive. Mr Knox said before the meeting the federation executive wanted an immediate ' response from the Government. “If the Prime Minister' wants time to look at it, then we will give him time, but we don’t want to wait too long,” he said.' The meeting was at Mr Muldoon’s invitation, bqt the latter said the timing, im-

mediately after the union conference, was just a coincidence. Mr Muldoon said he would call tripartite talks on the wage-fixing policy “before too long (but) it looks as if it will have to be after Christmas now.” He said it appeared the Government and F.O.L. could sit down to discuss wagefixing, and he had no doubt the employers would be' happy to take part as well. That was the important and most constructive thing, Mr Muldoon said. Before the meeting, Mr Muldoon said it was to “start to put in motion a procedure that will eventually, I hope, lead to agreement on where and how we move out of the freeze.” He warned that if no agreement was reached, “the Government has responsibility for taking whatever steps are necessary and that is a responsibility we won’t shirk.” Mr Knox said if industrial action was necessary to push the union demandSsaffer the initial Government rejection, plants would not be closed. Mr Muldoon did not rule, out a Government-funded body to review the wage-

fixing system. The proposal had some merit and he would call for talks with the unions and employers. The special F.O.L. conference included representatives of the Combined State Unions, which on Wednesday pledged to work with the federation on demands to the Government and employers that would represent the whole union movement. Delegates agreed, with little dissent, to bar the press from the conference. The F.O.L. secretary, Mr K. G. Douglas, told reporters that the Cabinet and employers excluded the press from their meetings, and the federation felt it could do the same for its conference. In addition to the wage demand and the review of wage-fixing, union delegates called for the freeze to be replaced by an agreement on the range of the next award round in consultation with the Government and employers. The unions want such talks to assess the movements in living standards, industry considerations, skill requirements and economic conditions. ’ '■ It also'agreed to set up a union working party to prepare a position on future

wage bargaining policy. Mr Knox told reporters' that rank-and-file unionists expected some alternative to Government economic policy, which had proved “a complete failure.” “The unions have had enough. The freeze has been a failure and 12 months is far too long to wait for relief.” The Government had taken away the right to free wagebargaining or to go to the Arbitration Court for a wage order, and unions had nowhere to go for relief as businesses had, said Mr Knox.

“We have been tied tighter than a drum,” he said. The terms of reference set out at the conference for the review include priority for the concept of a minimum living wage and a clear role for the Arbitration Court hearing cost-of-living applications.

They also call for economic conditions to be considered in conjunction with union bargaining positions. . Mr Knox said the $2O wage demand was negotiable, “but $5 or $lO is not enough.” The Employers’ Federation president, Mr S. W. Duncan,- reacted by saying a wage rise was unnecessary and beyond what New Zealand could afford.