Employers line up with tough tactics on wages

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 1

Employers line up with tough tactics on wages

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington

Tough tactics aimed at restricting wage increases this award round to levels the weakest companies can sustain were yesterday announced by the Employers’ Federation.

The federation’s president, Sir William Leuchars, said the strategy was not an attack on the union movement but a formula for the survival of industries and the preservation of jobs. Key elements in the battle plan are: • That awards be recognised as minimum documents and negotiated on a “worst case” scenario so that settlements reflect the ability to pay of the least able to pay. • That individual firms and regional or industry groups wanting to settle at a different rate initiate new limited-scope agreements and exempt themselves from the award.

• That the traditional relativity linkages, whereby a wage path is established and passed through the system, be broken. • That negotiators not allow second-tier agreements to push up award rates and bar any company which is party to such an agreement from acting as assessor in award negotiations. • That individual employers, including senior management and chief executives, develop closer relationships with their staffs and keep them informed at all stages of the award talks on “occurrences” and the reasons behind these. This anticipates the less

confrontational climate the federation hopes will emerge from the Green Paper review, but must also assume this year a less militant attitude among union rank and file and a preparedness by workers to accept limited wage increases if that is the price of protecting their jobs. • That back-dating be avoided. These principles were adopted yesterday at a final planning session in Wellington attended by employer representatives from throughout New Zealand. The meeting also declared united opposition to union demands for a

wage “top up” next year — a decision that was scarcely surprising given that the federation’s refusal to accept this condition was critical to the failure to strike a deal with the Federation of Labour for a managed round. Although the parties now seem far apart, Sir William said yesterday they had come closer to agreement than ever before.. Clearly, that closeness has since evaporated as each side has reverted to its opening offer. The employers are again talking in the nil to 3 per cent range, although they had come up to about 4 per cent in their discussions with the F.0.L., and the F.0.L., for its part, has sprung back to $24 a week, about 6.5 per cent on the average wage. This was described yesterday by the federation’s director of advocacy, Mr Steve Marshall, as too high even in a controlled regime, and "much too high” under the rule of free bargaining.

"In an award environment where you are looking at the normal attitudinal problems and (industrial) disruptions, etc., $24 is not in the world of reality. You are looking at ranges of nil to 3 per cent,” he said. Yet indications are already that the F.O.L.’s $24 campaign will not restrain unions from pitching higher. The advocate for the Drivers’ Award, Mr Rob Campbell, yesterday followed the F.O.L. line in filing for $24, but hinted he might raise his claim when he goes into conciliation on September 22 should the employers pursue the hefty list of coun-ter-claims they have lodged. "Obviously, in the face of proposals to extend the

normal working day, to introduce shift work and part-time work, and otherwise radically alter the conditions of work and earnings of road transport workers, it is not possible to meet the widespread expectation of a modest level of wage increase,” he said. This threat, combined with the firmness of the

federation’s stance yesterday and rumours that the employers in the other lead award — metal trades — intend to make a nil offer, would indicate that the round will get off to a difficult start, that negotiations will quickly stalemate, and that the unions will resort to industrial action — much as happened last year.