WORKERS PROTEST

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20888, 21 August 1939, Page 4

WORKERS PROTEST

MINISTERS QUOTED IN CONCILIATION COUNCIL . . - «.*{£. AGAINST WAGE INCREASES (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Saturday A protest against statements by Ministers of the Crown beintg used by employers’ assessors as an argument against workers at Conciliation Councils was made by Mr P. M. Butler, when the Conciliation Council, which considered the North Island Borough councils and other local bodies dispute, was sitting yesterday. He said: [ “It is a remarkable thing that the employers’ main argument consisted in quoting Ministers of the Crown against the workers though the Ministers had never said that low wages should be ; established. It was unfair that statements made by Ministers months previously on abstract matters should be trotted out at the Conciliation Council. “They quote these matters against us and the statements are not relevant to the matters in dispute and we ; take objection to it and I think r Ministers should be given an opporf tunitv of objecting to it. It is the i only argument l have heard put up I by the employers to-day about our offer on wages, and it is a weak one.'’ Employers’ Contention Mr D. I. McDonald, employers’ • agent, said that statements by { Ministers of the Crown regarding stabilisation, were only a minor argu- | ment. He said the court had a policy | regarding wage rates which had been } decided by Judge O’Regan’s Court in ; September, 1937, in respect to hourly ; rates, and followed some months later ! by a further indication of the court's ' mind on the question of weekly i wages. Since those pronouncements . the court had not shown, except in cases where it could be proved that there was justification for increasing particular rates, that in its opinion ■the conditions were such as to justify Increases in wage rates which ' had been brought up to the court’s stan- [ dard. Nothing was agreed to by the coun- » cil, and the Commissioner said he r thought the court would send the | dispute back to the council when he 1 hoped they would meet under circumstances that would enable them I to do what had been done in the past, [ viz., reach a settlement. Mr Butler said the court had no • authority to send a dispute back to f the council. \ The Commissioner, Mr Ritchie, said the council had not been wholly a waste of time.