Govt silent on 7% wage claim

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 1

Govt silent on 7% wage claim

By

GLEN PERKINSON

in Wellington

The Government declined to comment last evening on the effect the trendsetting metal trades award claim of 7 per cent would have on its fight to keep wages down.

The two new Associate Ministers of Finance, Messrs Moore and Caygill, declined to comment on the Engineers’ Union claim in the key award. The union submitted its claim yesterday. It wants a minimum increase of $25 a week. The claim outstrips the guidelines advocated by the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, this year. He, and the Treasury, have called for a nil to 2 per cent wage round. The union’s claim is identical to the figure it settled for in last year’s talks. It also received a 7 per cent rise in 1986.

The union, representing about 34,000 engineering and process workers, has also offered conces-

sions to help improve productivity in the industry which it will put to employers in the approaching talks.

Mr Douglas was not available for comment last evening.

The Engineers’ Union secretary, Mr Rex Jones, said the claim took into consideration the

state of the economy and employers’ ability to pay. The claim is based on a 6 per cent increase to offset inflation and a further 1 per cent for the increase in productivity the union sees the industry enjoying. The union said the consumers’ price index showed annual inflation would be about 6 per cent this year and next year. Mr Jones said low-paid workers were not benefiting from the tax and benefit changes since the last wage round. Because of this the union was demanding a minimum increase of $25 a week. “This is a realistic increase

which firms can afford and will facilitate a full agreement as soon as possible,” he said.

The union has tempered its claim because it did not want to see New Zealand’s economic recovery jeopardised, he said.

The union has also called on employers to reject salary in-

creases because “managers and others” were beneficiaries of tax cuts in higher income brackets.

Mr Jones dismissed Government claims that higher wages would endanger jobs. A modest wage round would stimulate the economy, he said. It would also encourage workers to assist in increasing productivity. A union spokesman, Mr Mike Smith, said last evening that the union was prepared to “do away” with award clauses limiting the job specifications of many workers that imposed demarcation on what employees did. The wage claim would take a core fitter’s rate to about $360 a week.

The Government has said it will not intervene in this year’s wage round.

The tripartite wage talks ended last week in disarray after the parties failed to reach agreement on tactics for the round. The

Minister of Labour, Mr Rodger, said after the talks that the

failure to reach an agreement could signal a “bumpy” wage round.