A STRANGE PROCEDURE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 59, 3 December 1941, Page 6

A STRANGE PROCEDURE

The deadlock between the Government and the New Zealand Fruitgrowers’ Federation would be puzzling at any time, but mi vie of the existing circumstances, it seems incredible. The fruitgrowing industry, like most others, has a legally-constituted employers union said to have been formed at the request of the Government fq the purpose of dealing with all matters of rates of pay and conditions of employment. That body had already met the represen afives of the workers’ union and an agreement had been reached, - . ject to the growers receiving approximately the same prices for their fruit this year as was received last season. Owing to the high quality of the crop last year the Government’s payments averaged 5/4|, but this year it proposed to make the overall payment equal 5//3 ’ But before giving the New Zealand Federation any particulars as to schedules, premiums for preferred sizes or other conditions of the purchase, the Government introduced a new factoi. It stipulated as part of the agreement that: The overall average purchase price for apples and pears to be 5/3. Workers under the Orchard Workers Agreement o be granted wages 5 per cent, above the rates specified in the pr sent agreement. '' Here it will be noted is an attempt to take advantage of the difficulties with which the fruitgrowing industry is faced owing to war conditions, to arbitrarily force on the industry increased wages costs setting aside the machinery of the law already provided for the determination of such matters. It is at least questionab e whether the Fruitgrowers’ Federation, which is not constituted to deal with wages and conditions of employment, has the powers to enter into arrangements of that character. They lie within the scope of the employers _ union and there is a well-established procedure for dealing with them. Why should the Government, at this stage, attempt to take, the matter of wages into its own hands and impose terms upon an industry. In this instance, although the price to the fruitgrowers is to be lowered slightly, the Government’s proposals, made to an industry that has lost its overseas markets owing to the. war, seek, to create standards that have no real bearing on the question of justice, Hus course involves a vital principle, and those very deeply concerned are the industries whose output is taken by the Government. wage increases determined by a Minister of the Crown can be made a prior condition to the purchase of the fruit crops, then what is to prevent similar conditions /being laid down with respect to other primary products ? The purchase of the season’s crop of fruit was, one tor arrangement between the Government and the Fruitgrowers Federation. The reduction in proposed prices probably did not represent complete loss to the growers, for they had the guarantee that the overall price would not fall below 5/3. Wages and conditions are matters for the unions and it certainly is not beyond the bounds of possibility that on that basis the employers’ union could have reached a satisfactory agreement with the orchard workers. But the normal, the legal procedure of wage fixation is to be jettisoned and the Government seeks to assume dictatorial powers, taking advantage, ot the temporary difficulty in which the fruitgrowing-industry has been placed through the war cutting off its export trade An important principle is involved and the Fruitgrowers’ Federation has very properly entered the strongest possible protest against the proceduie adopted.