WORKERS WHO “SWING” ON THEIR JOBS ARE HARMING THEMSELVES

Wanganui Chronicle, 7 October 1950, Page 8

WORKERS WHO “SWING” ON THEIR JOBS ARE HARMING THEMSELVES

Mr. S. J. Sullivan, president, of the Wanganui Employers’ Association, analyses the trouble with industry today as being that “the question of wages is decided by the workman and his trade unions.” In his monthly statement to the association he said: “Wages bear little if any relationship to production. They are calculated on what it takes to keep a man, his wife and two children in a fair degree of comfort. “The philosophy of wage control in New Zealand is based on the needs of . the individual and has little or no relationship to the price of the goods he produces,” he said. “If an industry designs a thing worth making, establishes a plant fox’ its production, secures the best supervision and engages a staff for its production, it would be able to determine by the nature of the product how much it could afford to pay in wages. Having then found the article to make, and decided how to make it the question of quality, price and wages follow in logical sequence. The adoption of efficient methods of manufacturing makes high wages with competance, the cheapest of wag 4,. “The problem today is to get value for money. Buying labour is like anything else—you must get your money’s worth. Every time a workman gives less than full value for the wages paid to him it practically helps him to lower his own wage and makes it harder for him and others to earn a living. No greater harm can be done than to allow a workers to ‘swing’ on his job.’’