Wage-rise demand made by unions

Press, 1 March 1984, Page 1

Wage-rise demand made by unions

PA Wellington The Federation of Labour and Combined State Unions yesterday demanded an April 1 general wage order in association with a prediction by the federation’s president, Mr W. J. Knox, that long-term wage-fixing talks were on the verge of breakdown.

The quest for a general wage order to emerge from the wage freeze is contrary to the position adopted by the F.O.L. in December when a limited wage-bar-gaining round was the preferred option. Mr Knox said the change was necessary because employer representatives in the long-term wage-fixing talks had adopted an unreasonable stance. In December the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, said it was important that the long-term wagefixing issue be resolved before any wage increase occurred.

Mr Knox said that it was very doubtful that the tripartite wage-fixing committee, which had met 28 times during the last 12 months, would reach an agreement before April. The F.O.L. had opted for a limited wage round last year on the understanding that the employer approach in the long-term talks would be positive. ; “It is now clear that the employers are.not negotiating with ahy flexibility as to the longer-term agreements,” Mr Knox said. Employers had not shifted from an unacceptable position tabled on February ■ 23, 1983, and had raised demands, in association with the Government, which the unions could not

accept. Mr Knox said, “they have come up with a number of suggestions which would have undermined the national award system and left the lower-paid unprotected.” “They have demanded the introduction of a system by which the Government could interfere with specific wage settlements.” He declined to elaborate on the employers’ long-term wage-fixing system but he said that the F.O.L. could not have agreed to it. “By insisting on them, the employers and the Government knew that there could be no agreement on the longer-term system.” Mr Knox said that that attitude would be confronted at the next wage talk session at Parliament on March 14, under the chairmanship of Sir Robert. “The C.S.U. and F.O.L. consider that our members require an immediate wage increase. “Workers have waited too long while prices have risen and they are now-faced with the rash of post-freeze price increases,” Mr Knox said. The attitude of the employers in the wage-fixing talks had left the union movement with no option but to demand an end to the wage freeze, insist on a

general wage increase from April 1, and to recommend that union affiliates bargain direct with employers. Mr Knox said that the F.O.L’s national council, which met yesterday, had not explicitly suggested that the quest for individual union bargaining with employers should be supported by industrial action. But he said that the council had decided that unions should “endeavour to bargain direct with employers or undertake other activity designed to address problems caused by the wage freeze, changed industrial structures, new technology, the reorganisation of work or other anomalies.” Sir Robert’s cavalier attitude towards the wage talks was evident in that just 90 minutes had been alloted for the March talks, Mr Knox said. The C.S.U. chairman, Mr Ron Burgess, said his executive had endorsed the proposed course of action outlined by Mr Knox. Mr Knox said that the union negotiators in the long-term wage-fixing talks were, prepared to continue discussions until March 13. “We are prepared to meet ... the door is still open ..; right up to the plenary session,” Mr Knox said. He was pessimistic about the outcome of such talks, however.