Govt’s record on employment ‘appalling,’ says Mr Knox

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 1

Govt’s record on employment ‘appalling,’ says Mr Knox

The president of the Federation of Labour, Mr Jim Knox, yesterday attacked the Government’s record on employment as “appalling.”

In what he described as probably one of the most difficult, speeches he had made, Mr Knoxtold.jthe Labour Party conference that Labour was not honouring its election commitments to increase jobs and to expand jobcreation programmes. Instead, he said, its economic strategy was benefiting the large corporations, the rich, and the "greedies” while demanding restraint from the workers who had put it into office.

Labour, he said, had pledged to work towards full employment yet its policies were causing “massive redundancies and dislocation" particu-

larly in the rural areas, and schemes which paid award rates were being phased out for schemes which paid much lower rates.

Not only that but the amount spent on work programmes had been cut $4l million in the last Budget. This, combined with inflation and increas-. ing unemployment, meant a reduction in real spending of at least $lOO million, Mr Knox said. This provoked the Minister of Employment, Mr Burke, to interject “Rubbish,”’ an interjection the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, was to repeat later in Mr Knox’s speech. Mr Knox also questioned the new training schemes, saying they would not create any jobs and that people were therefore being trained to compete against one an-

other for work in a shrinking labour market. In reply, the Minister of Transport, Mr Prebble, was later to say that Mr Knox’s analysis "wiped out” the addition of 55,700 jobs in the last two years.

Mr Knox criticised present proposals to do away with Jump sutn.’accident compensation payments, saying New Zealand workers had given up the right to sue employers for damages when A.C.C. was set up.

“A bargain was made and a social contract was formed. That social contract should be honoured,” he said. He attacked the introduction of the “user-pays” principle in the State sector, claiming that while this had not yet been

extended to the social services, “rumours abound.” On maintaining living standards, Mr Knox was also critical of the Government. He said Labour had not introduced, its promised incomes policy and that although workers had not lost much ground this was more in spite of the Government’s actions than because of them. Of the Green Paper, he said there was “disturbing” speculation that contestability of union coverage would be introduced and that awards would be severed from second-tier bargaining. Neither, he said, was in line with Labour’s commitment to strengthen the national award system. Measuring the Government’s performance in the “four fundamental issues of integrity” he had canvassed — living standards, employment, national awards, and the social wage — Mr Knox said it had “ploughed through the bottom line on employment and was precariously balanced on the other three.”

That, he said, put the unions in an awkward position. They remained loyal but their loyalty was “increasingly becoming one of political analysis of the consequences of not doing so rather than being any indication of positive support.” The delegates began by giving him a sympathetic hearing but during his speech their mood changed, although he got the ritual standing ovation at the end.

The mood change occurred when he warned the Government that unless it began to deliver more to the worker, working people would not support it at the next elections.

They would not vote

1 against it, Mr Knox said. They would just not bother voting at all. At this his audience became. even more restive, possibly because it was a little close to the bone. One delegate told Mr Knox to “shut up” and it was clearly a sentiment others shared but this is not to suggest that Mr Knox’s views did not have support. They did, and it emerged in the debate on employment when Mr Larry Potae, of Waikato, was applauded for saying that without national awards the working day would get longer and the rate lower. He said he accepted the need for reform but asked why it was always the unemployed and the lowpaid who got “kicked in the face.” Still, the cbnference won an important concession from the Government when it agreed to a remit calling for the introduction of fully funded work programmes. Mr Burke said an effort would be made to accommodate this in the “new deal” framework but that the emphasis must remain on training. This was significant, as the resolution clearly anticipated something akin to the P.E.P. scheme where award rates are paid. The Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, yesterday promised the Labour Party that there would be no more great surprises. He told the party conference that the Government had decided on so much now. that it would not be able to finish all the legislation for it before the next General Election.

The next 12 months would be a period of consolidation, fine-tuning, and implementation of changes already announced.