The Dominion MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1930. THE FLAX-MILL WAGES CUT

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 80, 29 December 1930, Page 8

The Dominion MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1930. THE FLAX-MILL WAGES CUT

Some'controversy may be expected in trade union circles over the 33 1-3 per cent, reduction by the Arbitration Court in the wages and piecework rates of the Manawatu Flaxmill Employees Award. This represents a reduction of the minimum rates from 15/- a day to 10/-, which brings it below the Court’s present standard rate for unskilled workers in casual employment. _ According to the workers representative on the Bench, the reduction is the greatest cut m wages ever effected in New Zealand.” However that may be, it is sufficiently drastic on the face of it to provoke criticism on the Labour side of the wages argument. Since controversy is likely, it is desirable that the facts of t e position should be clearly understood. In the first place the Manawatu flaxmills’ award is in itself an industrial anomaly. As the Court points out, flaxmilling is properly classed with the agricultural and pastoral industries. The latter are not governed by awards for the very simple reason, which applies also to flaxmilhng, tha the products of these industries are subject to constant and unpredictable price fluctuations. Furthermore, there are no awards in other flax areas outside the Manawatu district. It would have been interesting in this connection to have had from the Court some explanation why this general principle of award-ntakmg was departed from in the case of the Manawatu mills. ~ ~ j This contradiction in practice has resulted in considerable hardship to the Manawatu flaxmillers. The mills have b “ n s u " ? f or t j. e Dast t wo years owing to the heavy fall in prices. Finally they have had to close down altogether. Some hundreds o x workers have been thrown out.ofemployment,and the in consequence been faced with the loss of a export trade connection. Had the principle which(generally exempts the agn cultural and pastoral industries been observed inthis particular case, the flaxmillers would have been enabled to make the adjustmen necessary for carrying on, the losses incurred during the past two years wouldl no!: hav/been so great, the mills would have been kept going, and there would have been much less unemployment and diSt Tn‘dissenting from the Court’s decision the workers’ representative observes that though as a matter oi. principle he objects to a sliding scale based on fluctuations in prices, he woulff have preferred this to the straight-out. cut made under the order Mr Justice Frazer meets this objection by emphasising the necessity for stabilising wages, in the interests of both, parties There is.no degree of permanency, however, in the condition , attached to the Court’s order. The new schedule is to have a limited period of six months, at the end of which the parties may apply, to the Court to ..have the position reviewed. There is little practical difference between 'this arrangement and a sliding scale. Even at the reduced. figui e the temporary schedule still means a loss m working expenses, and, moreover, the industry has been left in a state pf uncertainty. This particular case exemplifies not only the difficulty of attempting to impose artificial wage conditions in respect of our primary industries, but also the absurdity, of applying the principle o. standard wages to unemployed relief works, lhe contrast between the flaxmill workers’ 10/- per day and the unemployed relief workers 14/- speaks for itself. The Court in its Memorandum covering its order in the flaxmills’ case, improves the occasion by replying to criticism of its action in, raising the Auckland electrical vyorkers wages to the level of the Dunedin award. The plea of justification is that having fixed the standard for a particular industry m one centre, the Court was obliged to standardise in the other, as there was no special difference in the circumstances affecting the two districts.” But what' of the very special financial and . economic differences which have changed the whole aspect of affairs in the interval between the making of these two awards?