Way paved for wage round after Budget
By
PATRICIA HERBERT
in Wellington
The first wage round since 1981 will start this year or early in 1985 within guidelines agreed to in post-Budget talks between the Government, the unions, and employers.
Whether any relief will be given before then, except in the way of targeted tax assistance, has yet to be decided. The announcement was made by the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, after jester-
day’s meeting of the longterm wage-fixing reform committee at which agreement in principle was reached on a new bargaining system. The parties at the table were the Government, the Employers’ Federation, the Federation of Labour and the Combined State Unions but they would release few details of the accord because the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, will announce it at next week’s Economic Summit Conference. The biggest sticking point in the negotiations towards the end of National’s term of office was the introduction of site or enterprisebased unions. The former Minister of Labour, Mr J. B. Bolger,, and the Employers’ Federation lined up in support of the proposal against the F.O.L. which was strongly opposed to it. Mr Rodger, while recognising the need to modify the union structure, has said that he does not favour Mr Bolger’s solution and that he would look more to encouraging extensive amalgamations among unions. It is believed that a compromise has been achieved within these terms and that the Government has agreed to provide incentives , for unions to amalgamate at site level. It is also believed that the Government, the Em-
ployers’ Federation and the F.O.L. have agreed to meet before each wage round to set parameters for the negotiations according to what the economy can stand.
Should these be tight, the parties will also discuss whether special assistance should be given to low-paid workers to ensure that they do not suffer unduly. The third big breakthrough believed to have come out of yesterday’s talks concerns the system of historic relativities. The Employers’ Federation has long argued that this should be relaxed because as it now applies, the whole round is virtually determined by the first award negotiated.
Because different enterprises have different capacities to pay, the federation has wanted to be able to fence in agreements and to
limit the flow-on effect from one award to another. It is believed that in future the Arbitration Court will be given more discretion in this area and that a greater flexibility in deciding settlements will be possible. Transitional arrangements to break out of the freeze have yet to be discussed. Within the timetable set by the Government, these were to be dealt with only after broad agreement had been reached on the new wage-bargaining system. However the F.O.L. has been lobbying for an interim wage adjustment and its president, Mr W. J. Knox, indicated yesterday, that it would continue to push hard for this.
“The time has come for us to have an opportunity to talk wages with our employers and to have the right to approach (the) Government for a wage increase,” he told a press conference. He also said that he was “very pleased” that the ground would be cleared for' wage negotiations after the Budget but warned that the F.O.L.' “would not want to wait any longer than that.”
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Bibliographic details
Press, 7 September 1984, Page 1
Word Count
550Way paved for wage round after Budget Press, 7 September 1984, Page 1
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