NO INCREASE IN BASIC WAGE

Southland Times, Issue 24356, 10 February 1941, Page 5

NO INCREASE IN BASIC WAGE

UNJOINS RESENT COURT’S DECISION

MELBOURNE, February 7.

The Australian trade unions express resentment at the action of the Arbitration Court in refusing their applications for an immediate increase in the basic wage because the economic outlook was not as good as in the year preceding the last declaration in 1937. The Australian Council of Trades Unions proposes calling an AllAustralia Congress to consider the matter. Tlie council claims that a vicious reduction in living standards has been made as a result of increased direct and indirect taxation. The responsibility is now on the Government to assure the workers that it does not propose to allow the matter to rest where the Court left it.

Mr E. F. Lyall, president of the Victorian Employers’ Federation, said the employers appreciated the decision not to change wages in the present disturbed conditions.

The Court did not think the application should be dismissed but should stand over for further consideration after June 30 when another application could be made.

The Chief Judge, Sir George Beeby, said he regarded the present basic wage as adequate for a family unit of three but offered only a meagre existence to family units exceeding three. A more logical system would be to grade the basic wage according to family responsibilities but no such claim had been made by employees or employers. The Government had announced its intention to initiate an endowment since the Court had concluded its hearing. If and when the endowment was a fact the fixation of wages would be greatly simplified. Meanwhile the real struggle in the near future would be to maintain and not to raise the existing standards. The present weekly basic wages in Australia are: Sydney £4/8/-; Melbourne, £4/6/-; Hobart, £4/3/-; Brisbane and Adelaide £4/2/- and Perth £4/1/-.