Job guarantees pay round ploy?

Press, 8 October 1988, Page 4

Job guarantees pay round ploy?

PA Wellington Watertight guarantees to maintain job numbers at present levels for the next year could be a powerful argument to reduce the pay increases being sought in the State pay round. The Public Service Association’s assistant general secretary, Mr Joris de Bres, said the P.S.A. would have to think hard about an employers’ offer to guarantee present employment levels for the next 12 months.

“In some departments a watertight guarantee of everybody having a job for 12 months is worth trading on.

“If I wanted to deal an interesting card to the union I would deal that one. ” He said the offer of such an enforceable guarantee would be attractive in departments like the Department of Conservation, and the Ministries of Transport and Agriculture and Fisheries, where job

prospects are uncertain.

Mr de Bres said that, while wage increases were an important aspect of the P.S.A.’s approach to the State pay round, it was not the dominant factor. The P.S.A. was also placing heavy emphasis on ways of improving working conditions, job protection, industrial democracy, union rights and involvement in departmental planning, It was “deliberately targeting” the good employer provisions of the State Sector Act in doing so.

The P.S.A. has indicated it will be seeking a 7 per cent increase in State pay, or a “flat” increase of about $3O a week to maintain workers’ living standards in the face of inflation.

The first negotiations with departments were due to start next week, and would involve the Public Trust, Audit Office, and Ministries of Transport, Social Welfare and Agriculture and Fisheries.