Mr Bolger backs unions’ complaint

Press, 22 May 1986, Page 2

Mr Bolger backs unions’ complaint

Wellington reporter The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, yesterday criticised the Government for its failure to consult the Combined State Unions on the shake-down in the public sector.

It is a complaint the C.S.U. has also been making, especially given Labour’s pre-election commitment to consultation.

The C.S.U.’s secretary, Mr Colin Clark, yesterday released the text of a letter he wrote to the Minister of State Services, Mr Rodger, complaining of the “radical changes” proposed and of the lack of discussion before they were announced.

Services would be either lost to the public or more expensive, the accountability of public enterprises would be diminished, and the morale of State employees would suffer severely as a result of the restructuring, he said.

The handling of the changes created “a grave crisis of credibility” betwr thr G it

.veen .ae rovemmem and the State unions and repeated earlier demands for an urgent meeting with the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, and the Prime Minister, Mr Lange.

Mr Clark’s criticisms were back by Mr Bolger who said rule No. 1 of industrial relations was to talk to the people concerned before making changes. Mr Bolger said the Government had shown total indifference to its employees and said the unions’ anger was justified.

He was equally critical that the reorganisation had been announced while Parliament was in recess, saying that this was "most disappointing” given Labour’s commitment to Parliamentary democracy.

The Opposition has demanded a debate and will apparently be given time on Wednesday, May 27. The issues it will raise then were canvassed by Mr Bolger yesterday. He said the package was "an exercise in paper-shuffling” and the reforms "no more than a change in book-keeping.” “What has been sought is to produce budget tables at the end of the year which look better but mean the same,” he said. He questioned how the $5O million cut in defence spending was consistent with New Zealand’s more independent defence policy. He also questioned Mr Douglas’s estimate that the changes would save $9OO million saying Mr Douglas had been wrong in every projection he had made on economic change so why should he be right this time. Mr Bolger said National was not opposed to corporatisation but only if there was real competition with the private sector and that this was not the case as some of the departments concerned were in monopoly or quasi-mono-poly positions. Without the discipline of competitors, there was no pressure to keep costs or prices down, he said.