Govt-union accord draft next week?

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 6

Govt-union accord draft next week?

PA Wellington The Government’s proposals for an Australianstyle accord with unions should be decided next week, and the bargaining will then begin, says the president of the Council of Trade Unions, Mr Ken Douglas.

In a lunchtime address to a W.E.A. seminar in Wellington, Mr Douglas said the compact was “many things to many people.”

He said the union movement was interested in it because it gave unions the chance to be advocates of change. Mr Douglas said the union movement did not yet have a clear idea of the Government’s proposals.

There had been discussions with the Government, and the sub-com-mittee set up to finalise the Government’s views on what should be in the compact would next week agree on the wording in a

document which would then be given to unions for discussion, he said.

Delivering another broadside at the Minister of Employment, Mr Goff, for his comments on the compact, Mr Douglas said, “If you listen to Goff, it’s about workers working harder for less return.”

He also took a swipe at the Business Roundtable, saying demands for labour market flexibility with no restraints were high on the agenda of those who, in times of economic crisis, sought to secure their economic security by constraints on other people’s economic well-being. Mr Douglas said that, once objectives were identified, the mechanism by which they would be implemented would be required to be not only tripartite but multipartite.

“You can’t have a structure for meeting the kind of economic objectives that I expect the union

movement will want to put up without reaching out into the community to seek ways of involving the Wider community.” Mr Douglas said the compact raised the fundamental objective of the Government to meet the social needs of people.

Even if these were not realised for 10 years, the start had to be made. It was an opportunity to tear out some of the “deadwood” and apply the collective hand of the community to the economic levers

It was not a matter of trust of this Government or any other Government. It was a matter of trust “in ourselves” to start the process off. Asked why the Government was interested in formulating the compact, Mr Douglas said he believed the motivation came from a realisation that the promise of Rogernomics was not going to be realised.