Ceramco urges Govt courage

Press, 22 September 1987, Page 37

Ceramco urges Govt courage

PA Auckland The nation’s economic policies cannot succeed unless the Government has the courage to carry them out even when the conclusion is sometimes politically difficult, the managing director of Ceramco Corp, Mr C. R. Bidwill, said yesterday. Mr Bidwill, addressing shareholders at a general meeting in Auckland, said the country was not accustomed to the high number of unemployed.

“As chief executive of an organisation with a payroll of 3000, I am frequently tempted to ask, 'What is unemployment?’” he said. "For almost every type of job we have available, we find it difficult to get the kind of employees we need, simply because we demand high standards.

“What is worse," he said, “is that in the case of our wage-earning workers we have no control over how much they should be paid, nor how they should be deployed. "They, themselves, have no choice in the matter of being a member of a trade union, let alone being able to negotiate directly with us, where performance by way of higher productivity and efficiency could be substantially rewarded by higher wages than are now being paid,” Mr Bidwill said.

"The Labour Relations Act is demonstrably the worst piece of legislation enacted by the present Government

It was misguided for the Government, having substantially deregulated the economy, to re-regulate the labour market”

He said that, far from congratulating themselves, those responsible for the recent 7 per cent wage increase in the metal trades award should be reflecting on the zero to 2 or 3 per cent inflation rates in countries that were both customers and trading partners of New Zealand.

Mr Bidwill was also critical of the rates of company tax. He said that, if the rate of company tax was not reduced to allow companies to be competitive with those of this country’s main trading partners, it was conceivable that some of New Zealand’s major manufacturing companies would relocate offshore.

The chairman, Mr A. T. Gibbs, said, "You will not hear us complaining about a freer economy.

Mr Gibbs also took issue with companies which were concentrating on overseas expansion.

"It is fashionable for New Zealand companies to be buying businesses all around the world,” he said. "Ceramco tried that over the last 20 years, with poor results.” In response to a shareholder who asked if it was likely some of Bendon’s small manufacturing plants in provincial centres might be closed, Mr Gibbs said manufacturing facilities were always being reviewed