FIXATION OF WAGES.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 October 1930, Page 6

FIXATION OF WAGES.

The Acting-Prime Minister is to be congratulated upon having turned down the suggestion of tlie General Labourers’ Union that Parliament should be asked to fix a basic wage for unskilled industry. At present that is the duty of the Arbitration Court. He would be a bold man who claimed that the court’s findings or the compulsory arbitration- system itself have-been of much assistance to industry. Still less could wages fixation by Parliament render the aid that industry is seeking at present. Stripped of non-essentials, the suggestion is plainly one that would make the votes of the, wage-earners something with which to ■bargain for higher rates of pay, and manipulation, if not actual corruption, would become comparatively difficult to prevent. What the labourers’ union and all other labour organisations have to realise is that it is no good imagining that any artificial standards of wages can help industry in these days of worldwide deflation. It is not more State or Court interference between employer find employee,, but closer co-operation between them, that is the present-day need. What the unions on each side of the Tasman seem utterly to fail to realise is that costs of production must be reduced if industries are to survive. Suggestions for lower wages are not made for the sake of giving capital a greater return, but for the sake of keeping open avenues of employment, that must be closed unless the price of commodities produced or manufactured can be brought to a level at which they can compete with rival supplies. Organised labour will not recognise either that by a reduction in production costs, including a smaller return for capital as well as lower, wages, the purchasing power of money will increase and the condition of the less highly paid workman will be improved rather than his standard of living brought down. There is no doubt many labourers are hard put to it to keep themselves and their families on the award wages. But even the deputation to the Ministry had to admit that “broken time,” in other words, slackness of employment, was • one of the chief causes of poverty. If the .award rate were doubled the additional cost would once more reduce the amount of work available, and the position of the-unskilled worker would be as bad as ever. There.is only one sound standard upon which to base rates of wages, and that is by the quality of service rendered. It is because the system of Arbitration Court awards cannot act upon it and cannot allow for individual efficiency or application that it has become a burden upon industry when it needs assistance rather', than any unnecessary handicaps to overcome.