Pay talks may deal with award coverage

Press, 8 March 1984, Page 9

Pay talks may deal with award coverage

By

MICHAEL HANNAH,

Parliamentary reporter

The Minister of Labour, Mr Bolger, wants the question of whether non-union workers are covered by union awards to be resolved in the long-term wage-fixing talks.

In an interview, Mr Bolger said that the question of award coverage had still to be resolved. He had hoped that it would have been dealt with in the longterm wage-fixing talks. “That is the sensible forum for it to be resolved,” he said. However, Mr Bolger rejected a suggestion that voluntary-union disputes could have been avoided had the Jaw provided that non-union workers were not

covered by present awards. He said that when the

issue was discussed before the voluntary-unionism legislation was introduced, the Federation of Labour had given “very clear indications” that it would be unhappy if anyone outside a

union was given a right to negotiate wages and conditions with an employer. Mr Bolger said that the Federation of Labour’s decision to seek a general wage order rather than a wage round this year did not alter the fact that wage-fixing procedures had to be settled, if not for this year, then for next year. “So the issue does not go away in terms of the three parties involved,” he said, “it still has to be addressed.”