PROFIT-SHARING IN INDUSTRY SEEN AS REMEDY FOR UNREST

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 July 1947, Page 3

PROFIT-SHARING IN INDUSTRY SEEN AS REMEDY FOR UNREST

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 11. Discussing industrial relationships, the Minister of Internal Affairs (Mr W. E. Parry) said it was no wonder workers were disturbed and uneasy, for they saw that the new wordl order was still as far off as when it was first promised to them after the First World War. Peace and order would not emerge in industry unless means were found of overcoming the sense of frustration.

The situation had not been helped by the recent declaration of the leader of the National Party (Mr S. G. Holland) that the new order of things should be forgotten, Mr Parry said. Before workers would be satisfied it was necessary to establish an economic democracy, giving employees a voice in industry. Employers and employees should appoint, a common board of directors or a management committee to be responsible for the control of each enterprise. Mr Holland: And to finance it?

Mr Parry said management committees such as he suggested should be responsible for dividing the revenue of an industry on the following basis: First, wages to be determined by the Arbitration Court as at present; second, interest on capital, the interest rates also to be fixed by the Arbitration Court; and, third, reserve for raw materials, depreciation, etc. Any surplus then left should be divided between workers and employers ona basis for which the ■ Arbitration Court should be made responsible. This would give workers an interest in their business, instead of keeping them purely on a wage basis. Mr C. G. E. Harker (Opposition, Hdwke’s Bay) said Mr Parry’s proposal was the best advocacy yet heard from the Government benches oi those principles of profit-sharing long championed by Mr Holland, and which Mr Harker said he personally knew to be applied even in the professions, such as law.