REGULATION OF WAGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18461, 26 July 1923, Page 6

REGULATION OF WAGES.

Cabinet's decision to allow the cost-of-living legislation to expire at the end of this year has two results —that the rates of wages then fixed by the Arbitration Court's awards and supplementary orders will be stabilised, and that the country and the Court will return to the pre-war system of regulation under which wages fixed by an award could not be altered until its expiry, with the theoretical exception of agreement by both parties to a variation. The plan of periodical revision of - wages and modification of existing awards by general orders was devised to meet abnormal conditions when the cost of living arid other circumstances were subject to considerable and rapid change. While prices were rising steeply it enabled the Court to relieve wage-earners of the resultant hardships, and during the period of retrogression, the Court's administration of the law undoubtedly helped to ease the shock of depression. Generally, it may be agreed that this legislation served a. useful purpose under abnormal conditions, but it was devised to meet an emergency, and circumstances now seem favourable for a return to normal arrangements. The downward tendency of the cost of living appears to have been checked, economic conditions generally are encouraging, so that there is little prospect of conditions that would impel the Court to order any large general reduction in wages. Briefly put, the proposal is that the last revision of the cost-of-living bonuses will be made in October, and an order will then be issued which will determine r the rates of wages until April 30, and thereafter until the various awards are presented individually for revision by the Court. The award rates with the added bonus will' become stabilised as new basic rates. This is already indicated in the carpenters' and other awards, in which the Court has abolished the distinction of bonuses. It is manifest that this result will not be prejudicial to employees. Nor need *: employers raise any serious objection, for with few exceptions the skilled trades are paying higher than the award rates, so that there is a margin of safeguard for the employer against adverse conditions arising during the remaining currency of awards. ; The latter will, in fact, become due for individual revision within a year or so after the period actually affected by the special legislation. In some trades, where the outlook may be less assured than the general, there might be good reason for. asking that the next award should be for a short term and from experience of the Court's policy, it may be presumed that representations with that object would : receive sympathetic consideration. , ■ ■