FIXING OF BASIC WAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1929, Page 9

FIXING OF BASIC WAGE

LABOUR COUNCIL’S RESENTMENT. By Telegraph. —Pres» Association. Dunedin, Last Night. The Otago Labour Council this evening levelled considerable criticism at the Arbitration Court’s pronouncement regarding the basic wage. It was stated that the court had repudiated the basis which it had formerly adopted, namely, that a family for the purpose of taxation meant a man, his wife and' two children. After a lengthy discussion the following resolutions were passed: —; “That this council'views with grave concern the ease with which the Court of Arbitration, in order to further the interests of employerdom as opposed to those of the workers, has repudiated the foundation of the basic wage fixation on which it has worked for many years. The court has thus shown itself to be partial, inconsistent and arbitrary, and we strongly recommend the national counsel of the New Zealand Alliance of Labour to request the Government to require the Court of Arbitration to state clearly and definitely upon what principles or basis it has created the present inadequate basic wage. “That in view of the recent pronouncement of the Court of Arbitration on the basic wage this council is of the opinion that the time is ripe for the workers to realise that the only basis on which their wages and conditions can be improved and maintained is by organising along more definite industrial union and- class lines, and that all unions be called upon to urge the development of the class consciousness of the whole working class with a view to winning better conditions on the basis of their economic strength.”