Changes called for in wage fixing

Press, 12 June 1984, Page 18

Changes called for in wage fixing

PA Wellinton New Zealand’s wage-fix-ing system was outdated, inflexible and needed to be more responsive to market forces, said the executive director of the Employers’ Federation Mr J. W. Rowe, in Geneva. In a speech to the International Labour Conference, Mr Rowe said it was a wonder that the system had survived as long as it had. "The omens are that the country was ready for voluntary unionism,” he said. “The decision to make union membership voluntary may well prove a crucial step towards a reformed union structure and reform of the wage fixing system. “Both are now archaic, and go a long way towards explaining the country’s poor economic performance in recent years,” he said. He said that the wage freeze had reduced inflation 14 per cent to 3¥z per cent a year and that changes to wage fixing were essential to avoid in inflationary “blow-out” when the freeze was lifted. Mr Rowe said that a return to a system based on the Arbitration Court was not credible, given present union attitudes. “Somehow wage fixing in New Zealand must be made more responsive to market forces and more flexible,” he said.