Opening wage offer ‘compounded to 18.4%’

Press, 3 October 1985, Page 4

Opening wage offer ‘compounded to 18.4%’

PA Wellington Electrical employers have said their opening wage offer for a skilled tradesman in the wage talks was a figure that compounded to 18.4 per cent after 13 months. They said the offer that looked high worked out to an average increase of 14 per cent over 12 months for a skilled worker and much less for a worker on the basic award rate. The president of the Electrical Contractors’ Federation, Mr Warren Harding, said he believed the Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, either misunderstood the offer or was misinformed about the details when he applied pressure to employers not to settle high. He said that when the Minister telephoned him, in the first of four telephone conversations they were to have, Mr Rodger said he believed the employers’ opening offer was to be about 16,17, or 18 per cent. Mr Harding said he did not tell Mr Rodger what the offer was until after it had been made to union assessors. Then he told Mr Rodger only part of the

offer. The first offer — now outdated by the settlement of 15.5 per cent — was the one that led to Mr Rodger considering drafting wage regulations. Mr Harding said that offer was for a basic increase of 9 per cent for all workers from October. Skilled workers in the top three classifications of the award would be paid an additional 3.9 per cent at the same time. Then there were to be two subsequent increases that applied to everyone in lieu of second-tier bargaining. Workers were to get an additional 2 per cent in February and a further 2.5 per cent in June next year.

Mr Harding said each increase was a percentage on the latest rate and-had a compounding effect.

The increases for skilled workers in the top three classifications compounded to 18.4 per cent after 13 months.

Mr Harding said that could not be quoted as a year’s increase. Only the October increases applied for the whole period.