Govt threatens strong action on wage claims

Press, 19 September 1985, Page 3

Govt threatens strong action on wage claims

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington The Government yesterday threatened recourse to the Economic Stabilisation Act — a strong-arm piece of legislation it campaigned against in the election — should the wage round go too high. The Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, quoted it as one of the tools available, but said there were also provisions in the Industrial Relations Act which might be used.

He said, however, that those powers would be reverted to only as a last resort, and reluctantly. Controls of that sort were addictive, he said, and “very often” one led to another. Mr Rodger was responding to the claims that have been lodged in the drivers’, metal trades, and meat workers’ documents. They range from 25.6 per cent to about 30 per cent. He said he was inclined to

put down much of the talk to rhetoric and posturing and that he expected more realistic bids to emerge next week. The figures that were being bandied about were quite unrealistic and unsustainable. Clearly the Government could not allow its economic policies to be sabotaged by excessive settlements, he said. His comments — made on the radio programme, “Morning Report” — attracted a flurry of questions in Parliament yesterday afternoon. Mr Rodger was absent on business leaving the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Caygill, to deputise for him. The Opposition asked if the Government was mindful of Labour’s pledge to repeal the act as repressive and anti-democratic and when that might be expected to occur. Mr Caygill said a number of regulations introduced

under the act had already been revoked and that it would be repealed altogether when the review was completed. Mr Rodger has threatened intervention twice in as many days while at the same time insisting that the Government is sticking to its policy of non-interven-tion. Clearly his intention is to try to talk down expectations in the round, now dangerously high. His actions, however, have put him offside with the union movement which detects a contradiction between threats of controls and the promised return to free wage-bargaining.

The advocate for the metal trades award, Mr Rex Jones, said yesterday that he regretted that “prominent people” should make statements about his claims without first making a careful analysis of them — a reference to Mr Rodger.