Freeze inquiry idea mooted

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 11

Freeze inquiry idea mooted

PA • Wellington A commission of inquiry into the phasing out of the wage freeze and’to review the wage determination and 1 industrial relations system was mooted yesterday by the executive director of the Employers’ Federation, Mr W. J. Rowe. Reporting to the *federation’s annual meeting in Wellington, Mr Rowe said that- it was hard to see a resumption of tripartite talksbeing successful;

They had .-failed earlier because they were confronta- . tional and more like negotia- : tions than a combined search for a better system, he , said. A forum of another sort, such as a commission of inquiry, could be more appropriate. • / In his address, the past president, Mr S, W. Duncan, of Dunedin, said that employers were willing to get on with the job of reforming the wage determination system, but trade unions so far '

had been preoccupied with attempts to break the wage freeze. “Irrespective of our views on the freeze, it is a fact and it offers an opportunity to get inflation under control. However, when the freeze ends there must not be a return to wage increases beyond the country’s capacity to pay. “unions will have to show restraint, and employers firmness, otherwise we will be back where we started from,” said Mr-Duncan