State pay settlement blamed for anomalies

Press, 30 July 1986, Page 8

State pay settlement blamed for anomalies

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington The big pay rises given the State sector last year threaten this year’s wage round, according to the director of advocacy for the Employers’ Federation, Mr Steve Marshall. “The Government, the nation’s largest employer, showed itself remarkably generous and most. susceptible to industrial massage. It has created and perpetuated all kinds of anomalies,” Mr Marshall told Opotiki Federated Farmers yesterday.

He accused the Government of guaranteeing that the 15.5 per cent Increase negotiated in the electri-

cal contractors* award would be "perpetuated throughout the country.” “They started off by giving the State servants an 8 per cent interim general adjustment — that is those who did not receive the massive hike of the Higher Salaries Commission.

“Then, just to show they wanted to be flexible, they gave under threat of industrial action some massive increases — like a rookie policeman earning $32,000. Then there was the teachers’ deal and so on. “State servants could have been forgiven for thinking they were working for Santa Claus.

“Having created massive anomalies in the State sector, the Government then proceeded to pick up the so-called anomalies of the private sector. The carpenters’ $1 an hour (industry allowance) was picked, transposed across to the State, and so it went on. “Now we have the Minister of Labour (Mr Rodger) just last week admitting that the State sector as a whole was running a good 3 per cent ahead of the private sector.

“Already this year we have private sector unions saying they want relativity with the State before they start negotiating an in-

crease tor this wage round. “That must be what is known as the money-go-round,” he said. He suggested that the Government take its own advice — it should think of the flow-on effects, the effect on the economy, and so on. “I wonder how much of the $1 billion Budget deficit that was found just a week or sb ago was due to the big hike in State pay rates?” Mr Marshall said. He professed disbelief that this year in the tripartite wage conference the Government had blamed employer and union negotiators for last year’s too-high round.