WAGE RATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26274, 4 October 1946, Page 6

WAGE RATES

ADJUSTMENT SOUGHT COMMENTS ON STABILISATION (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 3. The opinion that a peace-time stabilisation conference should be called and that the time was overdue for a readjustment of wage rates following recent industrial legislation and price movements was expressed by the Canterbury Trades Council of the Federation of Labour to-night. The council supported the attitude of the Canterbury Builders and General Labourers’ and Related Workers’ Union expressed in the following resolution at the September quarterly meetings: “That this union supports the action of the Wellington Labourers’ and Wellington Watersiders’ Unions requesting the Federation of Labour to have the position of stabilisation clarified by the Government. Further, that the apparrent disregard shown for the regulations in the case of higher paid personages, including the GovernorGeneral and judges, as embodied in the recent Finance Bill, is viewed with grave concern.” The Trades Council was asked by the union to support the resolution. “The council will appreciate the procedure in operation where increases in the wage rates of workers have to be justified before the Court of Arbitration,” stated a letter signed by the secretary of the union. “In the instance quoted in the resolution, the increases granted do not appear to require any regard for the regulations. While agreeing with the principle and the application of stabilisation it is essential, if industrial peace is to be maintained, that the regulations are applied to all walks of life. The workers are refused increases because of stabilisation, yet company dividends increase and higher paid personages receive increases despite stabilisation.”