PRICES AND WAGES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24106, 27 October 1941, Page 9

PRICES AND WAGES

CANADIAN CONTROL PLAN COST OF LIVING BONUS OTTAWA. Oct. 2r» The organisation is rapidly getting under way to give effect to the Government's plan to block inflation and control the cost of living. The plan, which was described by the Prime Minister, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, as "an experiment hitherto untried on this ! continent and perhaps, having regard to its breadth and variety, hitherto untried by the will and consent of free people anywhere," the creation of few agencies. I'uder the plan a ceiling will he placed on al' price:- and basic wages with cornpuls'Tx eNt' ji-iom of the cost of ii\ mg bonus to all wage-earners. .Acting under exll tided ilowers the Wartime Prices Hoard will administer the price control plan. Wages control will be administered I)v a National W r ar Labour Board which, with regional labour boards working under it, has still to be created. Facti of these labour boards will be equally representative of employers and employed. They will supervise a cooperative inspection enforcement service by joint staffs of the Dominion and Provincial Departments of Labour. One of the primary functions of these hoards will bo to observe how the policy works in practice and to recommend its revision or modification in the light of experience. The cost of living bonus which emplovers are required to pay from November 15 is adjustable every three months The bonus is based on a payment. of 2~> cents a week for each rise of m;r> point in the Dominion Bureau of Slat Mi' - cost of living index. ,|m eiiile ot female workers cai nitig less than "hi cei.ts au hour will receh o one per <o!;t of the basic wage rate.