Cutting work hours ‘economic suicide’

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 11

Cutting work hours ‘economic suicide’

PA Wellington The Australian trade union catch ..cry of “fewer hours, more jobs” is a tragic hoax which has now been exposed, says the industrial relations adviser of the Confederation of Australian Industry, Mr Greg Smith. Addressing the Employers’ Federation annual, meeting in Wellington, Mr Smith said it was significant that under growing unemployment, Australian unions were not actively pressing for further across-the-board reductions in standard hours.

They could npw be realising that increasing employers’ costs far beyond capacity was not conducive to job creation, said Mr Smith.

Australian employers had been in an unenviable posi-

tion at the end of last year. The number of disputes had been the highest on record. “I want to make it plain that increases in money wages of 19.8 per cent plus reductions in standard hours of work were not the products of employers,” he said. “Those were objectives concentrated on by a number of unions, and the increases came only after an industrial campaign co-ordinated by the Australian Council of Trade Unions.

“The..; choice ultimately faced by employers was between a continuation of industrial action or agreement to union demands. It was decided that it was preferable to live to trade another day. “However, in a growing number of cases the survival

of business has not been possible and employers have gone out of business with a resultant loss of jobs,” said Mr Smith.

Describing reduced hours of work as economic suicide, Mr Smith said the effects were to slow production, reduce consumption and investment growth, increase unemployment and interest rates and put inflation into doubledigit figures. . The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 8.2 per cent and was being added to daily with an alarming number of retrenchments.

At Christmas, 150,000 school-levers would be looking for jobs. It was not difficult to believe that an unemployment rate of 10 per cent was just round the corner, Mr Smith said.