COURT GRANTED WAGE AND SALARY EARNERS EIGHT MILLIONS

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 July 1950, Page 5

COURT GRANTED WAGE AND SALARY EARNERS EIGHT MILLIONS

PARLIAMENT BLDGS., Last Night (PA).—ln the Address-in-Reply debate in the House of Representatives tonight, the Minister of Labour, Mr. Sullivan, said that the Member for Hutt (Mr. Nash) had almost set himself Up as Judge of the Arbitration Court's activities and the criticism he had made of its recent interim wage order would not enhance it in the eyes of the public. Many fantastic claims had been made for compensation to meet increased costs since the removal of subsidies. The Member for Hutt had talked of 16s 2d week increase, which would mean making provision for £24,654,000 a year for all wage and salary earners. Wage and salary earners and their dependents totalled about two-thirds of the population, who carried £8,000,000 of the £12,000,000 of the subsidies removed. Court’s interim total award was £8,971,000 to take care of that £8,000,000. There was talk of a ridiculous claim for £2 a week, and if that was to apply to all, it would mean making provision for £61,282,800. If the waterside workers claim of £4 a week was applied to all wage and salary workers, it would mean an increased annual wage bill of more than £12,000,000 yearly. Such fantastic claims could not be entertained for one minute. The Court, in its decisions, must be fair and must have regard for the economic welfare of the country. The procedure followed in 1950 was exactly the same as on previous occasions. Mr. Sullivan said there was no thought in the mind of the Government to do injustice to any section of the people. The Court of Arbitration was there to make its award free and untrammelled, and any suggestion that the Court had been influenced had been unjust or unfair in any way, tended to undermine and reduce its standing in the eyes of the public.