ARBITRATION COURT EMPOWERED TO MAKE STANDARD WAGE PRONOUNCEMENT OR A GENERAL ORDER INCREASING WAGES

Grey River Argus, 22 February 1949, Page 5

ARBITRATION COURT EMPOWERED TO MAKE STANDARD WAGE PRONOUNCEMENT OR A GENERAL ORDER INCREASING WAGES

STABILISATION REGULATIONS AMENDED YESTERDAY P.A. WELLINGTON, February 21. • The conditions under which the Court of Arbitration may make either a standard wage pronouncement, or a general order increasing wages, have been changed by an amendment to the Economic Stabilisation Emergency Regulations, 1942, which was gazetted to-dav.

Aii explanation of the amendment was given by the Minister of industries and Commerce, the Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer. He said that the new amendment (No. 14) was to apply to the applications for a standard wage pronouncement recently filed by the Employeis’ Federation and the Federation of Labour. Material changes made by the amendment are as follows: —

The economic considerations which must be examined by the court before it makes either a new pronouncement fixing standard rates for skilled, semiskilled and unskilled workers, or a General Order are now the same. These considerations are: The promotion of the economic stability of New Zealand; any rise or fall in retail prices, as indicated by any index published by the Government statistician; economic conditions affecting finance, trade, and industry in New Zealand; the relative movements in the incomes of different sections of the community; al lother considerations which the court deems relevant.

I In accordance with the recommendations of the Index Committee, which were adopted by the Government, no further data will be collected by the Government Statistician for the War-time Price Index and this index will not again be published. I The Court mav make a General Order upon application being made for a new standard wage pronouncement, and vice versa. A full year must elapse between the making, or taking effect, of one pronouncement or General Order, and the making or taking effect of another. , , Before making a pronouncement of a General Order, the Court must afford such an opportunity to be heard as it thinks proper to representatatives appointed by the parties bound by the awards and industrial agreements. , X Should the Court adopt the course of making a new standard pronouncement, it may proceed to amend those awards and industrial agreements that are in force when the pronouncement is made. The court is then to have due regard to any increases in the rates of remuneration of the workers affected by a particular award or industrial agreement granted by the court sinc'e October 1, 1947, and to have due regard to a proper relationship between the lates under consideration and those ot other workers or classes of workers. “Apprentices in most trades will participate automatically in any increase which the court may award under the regulations, since, in most cases, the apprentices’ wage is fixed as a proportion of the relevant journeyman’s rate. Where this is not so, the court has the power, upon application being made, to amend the apprentices’ rates, or to apply thereto the terms of a general order. The amendment revokes several clauses introduced as transitional provisions by earlier amendments, and now spent. It also revokes the Rates of Wages Emergency Regulations, 1940. which formerly governed the making of general orders. It should be stressed that it is only in the event of the court making a general order that the rates of wages (other than apprentices ) bound by awards or industrial agreements ai e increased automatically. Indeed, the court is empowered to exclude from the benefit of such an order any specified class or section of workers. Those workers not bound by awards or industrial agreements art not entitled to benefit of any increase following upon a general order or standard wage pronouncement, except where an increase is specifically authorised under the regulations. Statement by Minister of Labour CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 21. Hon. A. McLagan, Minister of Labour, stated that both the Federation of Labour and the Employers’ federation had been consulted and had agreed to amendments to the Economic Stabilisation Emergency Regulations. The amendments had been before the Labour Party caucus and there was no basis whatever for any

SETTLEMENT EXPECTED IN DRIVERS’ DISPUTE p.A. WELLINGTON, Feb. 21. The general drivers’ dispute, over which stop-work meetings were recently held in town and country centres, will be considered again in Conciliation Council on Friday and Saturday next. Mr C. L. Hunter, Conciliation Commissioner, will preside. The National Council of the New Zealand Drivers’ Federation will meet on Wednesday and Thursday to consider developments. The secretary of the Drivers’ Federation, Mr A. C. Melville, said' today: “We are very hopeful that a settlement will be achieved at the Conciliation Council sitting.”

suggestion that the party had split on the question. Mr McLagan said that newspaper report published hitherto had given the question a prominence that was out of all proportion to its real importance. * , Actually there was nothing new in the amendments at all. The Arbitratian Court was empowered to take certain specified considerations into account on an application for a wage pronouncement or a general wage order. . r T u “However, the Federation of Labour was anxious for the amendment, as a result of which the court is expressly required to hear argument on this point,” said Mr McLagan, who added that the amendment was agreed upon before the caucus met and, in view of the unanimity of opinion, it was not even considered necessary to bring it before the caucus.

LABOUR CAUCUS MISREPRESENTED ON WAGE ISSUE Prime Minister Nails Falsehood About a “Split” P.A. AUCKLAND, February 21. The Prime Minister, Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, issued the following statement to-night: — “I have been informed that the following statement has appeared in this morning’s ‘Christchurch Press’:— ‘lt seems that the more conservative sections of the Labour Party, including the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, and the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, have been over-ruled in the Caucus by a group which supports militant unions. The Left Wing’s i usual spokesman, Mr G. H. O. Wilson (Government, Palmerston North) said, in his Budget speech last August, that wages had not been increased to the same extent as had other sections of the national income’.” Mr Fraser continued: “This statement is a complete, and a particularly foolish fabrication, especially reprehensible and sweeping in its falsity, because it applies to every Member of Parliamentary Labour • Party. “There was absolutely no division of opinion at last week’s Caucus meeting of the Party on industrial matters generally, or on

those affecting the Public Service in particular. > “The report of the Minister of Labour, Mr McLagan, was accepted unanimously, and he was thanked for his capable and fair treatment of industrial difficulties.

“It was decided, unanimously, to publish the figures of the national income, and its distribution among the various sections of the community. Those figures dismiss the suggestion of an application for an increase in wages of £2 per week into the realm of phantasy. Indeed, the immovable facts of wealth production set a limit to the amounts available all round the economic range.

“The Government’s attitude to the claims of the Public Service Association since the session of Parliament was approved by all of the members, with the exception of the publication of the Holmes Letter, the wisdom of which was doubted by three members, who voted accordingly. , “There are no sections in the Parliamentary Labour Party. That conception is a sheer, distorted figment of imagination, promulgated for political purposes, mainly, at the moment, by Communist reactionaries and their feeble allies, for the purpose of weakly and vainly endeavouring to promote disintegration in the ranks of Labour”.