No general wage order—P.M.

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 2

No general wage order—P.M.

PA Wellington The possibility of a general wage order before the end of the wage freeze was ruled out by the Prime Minister, Mr Muldoon, yesterday.

When asked about such a possibility on Monday, Mr Muldoon replied, “You will have to wait and see on that,” but yesterday he told the Building Societies’ Association in Wellington there would be no general wage increase. A $2O a week wage rise for all wage and salary earners and beneficiaries was called for as a resolution of a special Federation of Labour conference last week:

But .when the F.O.L. president, Mr W. J. Knox, put the demand to Mr Muldoon, the Prime Minister replied it was not justified because tax cuts were meant to offset price increases. Mr Muldoon’s stand was later confirmed by the Cabinet. Mr Muldoon-said’ yesterday that the ' inflation rate was comin’g down because of the wage-price freeze and that policy would continue to be “tightly held.” “There will be no general

wage. increase,” he said. However, discussions with the F.O.L. and the Employers’ Federation on procedures to move out of the freeze next June would start in the New Year, Mr Muldoon said.

The, Government should allow the unions to take their demand for a $2O a week wage rise to the Arbitration Court, the Labour Party said yesterday. An Opposition spokesman, Mr F. M. Gerbic (Onehunga), said that if the Cabinet was as sure' as it said it was that there was no case for an increase, it should act in a “fair and rational way” and allow submissions to be put to the Court. This was done in May, 1981, when the Court granted a 5 .per cent cost-of-living increase.

“Since then prices have moved 21.2 per cent and wages only 10.4 per cent, leaving a gap of 9.8 per cent,” Mr Gerbic said.

Mr’ Gerbic questioned Mr Muldoon’s assertion that last month’s tax reductions were an alternative to a wage order, asking what sort of

alternative it was when those on $lOO a week got a 1 per cent increase and those on $560 a week got a 28 per cent increase.

He said how much the tax reductions compensated for the drop in living standards since May, 1981, was a matter for argument.

“The lower-paid workers received the least and are finding it hardest to cope with rising prices,” Mr Gerbic said.

“Since the repeal of the General Wage Orders Act by this Government in 1979, unions and employers no longer have a right to apply to the Arbitration Court for a cost of living increase. They must rely on the whim of the Government. “If the Government refuses them the right to argue for ‘ a general increase, as well as refusing the uhions the right to negotiate with employers, the only, .conclusion that can be reached is that New Zealand has become an authoritarian State, and the last vestiges of democracy in our working lives has disappeared,” Mr Gerbic said.