The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, February 22, 1949. THE WAGES ISSUE

Grey River Argus, 22 February 1949, Page 4

The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, February 22, 1949. THE WAGES ISSUE

there being in yesterday’s amendment of the Stabilisation Regulations nothing whatever to constrain the Couit oi Arbitration, it was to nave been expected that the Prune Minister would take occasion to correct an impression to the contiaiy v nci had been propagated in a section of the press. This propaganda took the form of an insinuation that the Labour Party at last week’s caucus had been divided on the wages question, and that what was termed a Left Wing section had prevailed over others, including Ministers, to the extent that the Arbitration Court would .be enabled or given scope to order a large and general increase of wages. Its press does the National Party no service by such a misrepresentation. As the Minister of Labour ycsteidaj pointed out, the amendment to the regulations leaves the situation largely the same, except, perhaps, for a few legal technicalities; but the idea of those who in the press suggest that workers, on the strength of the amendment, should expect some unprecedented general wages rise is possibly to create a sense of disappointment when Ministers explain the actual position. Thus the Prime Minister, when exposing the false statement that the Labour Party was divided, emphasises that the national income or dividend is by no means such as to justify fanciful expectations of augmented income for everybody in■ the ranks of wage earners. It may be that, contrary to complaints from capitalists, company profits have increased in some cases more than wages, but that comparison stands to be corrected by the fact that taxation from such company in come is exacted in a far higher ratio than taxation from wages, and that in this process, the coffers of the State benefit as compared with the way they would fare were there a radical curtailment of company returns. The Court certainly is given by the amendment of Stabilisation Regulations the scope to make either a new pronouncement on the standard wage for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled labour; or a general order affecting all award wages rates. At this stage nobody could pretend to predict, for instance, whether the Court — upon going into all relevant considerations defined in the amendment, which previously had likewise to be taken into account — will judge either that a general order or a pronouncement on standard rates is called for. Both employers and employees have applied for a pronouncement, whilst there is an application from workers’ organisations for a general order. Were the latter to be made, moreover, nobody could pretend meantime to predict what might be the percentage of alteration in rates it would entail. That precisely is the very thing which the Court exists to determine, and were it. to accept direction from others, it morally would cease to function. It is admittedly obliged to take into account all of’the factors defined in the Regulations when computing wages, and it is competent for applicants to submit the fullest evidence upon those factors, but the final arbitrament rests with the tribunal itself, so that no amount of external argument can be expected to supersede the Court’s own judgment. It might infer that the fairest way of correlating the incomes of workers with each other and with the available means is a new fixation for the categories of skill, or, on the other hand, a percentage increase all round. There has been no little agitation for tlie latter, and for this upon a relatively considerable scale, but there at the same time is a strongly-felt conviction among many workers that the first requisite is to redress the inequalities affecting certain groups, and these in many cases are skilled groups. ■ That fact is illustrated by the contrast between the case of the public servants and that of other groups seeking a general order. There is only one satisfactory institution existing to deal with the issue in a general way. tlie Court of Arbitration, and as the interests of most workers are in the care of that, tribunal, the only reasonable attitude of workers in general is to -rely on its impartiality and justice.