WAGE INCREASE CLAIMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27091, 27 May 1949, Page 5

WAGE INCREASE CLAIMS

BRITISH CIVIL SERVANTS GOVERNMENT POLICY DEFIED NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, May 26. The Civil Service Clerical Association. which with 150,000 members is the strongest of . the Whitehall civil service unions, decided after a brisk debate to defy the Government’s policy of freezing wage increases and to endorse claims for a 15 per cent, increase in wages for 80,000 workers. The conference carried a resolution condemning the Government’s policy of restricting wages without lowering the cost of living as unfair and decided to urge the Trades Union Congress to press the Government in its attitude of wages. Mr L. C. White, general secretary of the Civil Service Clerical Association, described the attitude of the TUC as “ sheer hypocrisy ” and asked why on one hand the congress supported wage freezing while on the other hand individual members of its executive led claims by individual unions for higher wages. „ “ If the General Council of the TUC is to clear itself of the suspicmn that it is more ■concerned to avoid embarrassing the Government than 'it is to interpret the wishes of the rank and file, it will have to act in a more truly representative capacity than it has done on the wages issue,” Mr White said.