LABOUR PROBLEMS

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21193, 16 August 1940, Page 4

LABOUR PROBLEMS

DIVISION OF PROFITS ENGLAND SOLVES TROUBLES BONUS ON OUTPUT “The United Kingdom appears to have solved, to a remarkable degree, the old problem of the division of profits between capital and labour,” commented Mr W. Goodfellow, managing director of Amalgamated Dairies’ Ltd., at the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy Company, Ltd. smoke concert last night. “For many years past, there has been little industrial trouble in Great Britain, and much evidence of co-operation, with very considerable benefits foi both parties.” Prior to the Great War, labour was hostile to capital—which was regarded as its proverbial enemy, and refused to forget that the “sweating” conditions of tne previous century were largely a thing of the past, adaed Mr Goodfellow. However, after the war, capital and labour both faced extreme difficulties, and were compelled to get together and study each other’s problems. They succeeded to a remarkable degree, by the establishment of a minimum wage plus a bonus on output. Technicians were employed in all the large machinery plants, to work out a fair day’s work, and any additional output was paid for by an addition to the weekly wage. Although money wages appeared high in New Zealand, tne real wages paid for skilled and semi-skilled workers in Great Britain were said to be the highest in the world prior to the war. “During my recent visit, I inspected many large industrial enterprises all over Great Britain, and in every case this system was in operation, and in no single instance could I detect any sign of slackness,” added Mr Goodfellow. “We in New Zealand are unfortunate, in that we are isolated and situated so far from the world’s great industrial centres. Probably this is the cause of the out-of-date methods advocated in this Dominion.

“To imagine that a higher standard of living for the workers can be obtained, and retained, by higher and yet higher wages and shorter hours, is recognised by the union leaders in England as a physical impossibilty. They know by experience that it is the goods produced, and not capital, that must provide the wages. How then, can a higher standard be obtained by producing less goods?”

“In my opinion, the policy of the Federation of Labour in New Zealand is 30 years out of date,” said Mr Goodfellow, “and before the Federation forces the Government to commit political and economic suicide, it should be sent to England at the Government’s expense for a refresher course. Personal contact with sound and experienced English Labour leaders and their problems, would, I believe, be of inestimable value, not only to members of the Federation, but also to the Government and people of this Dominion. “Surely it is obvious that the higher our artificial economic structure is jacked up, the greater the avalanche when our national income, based on export values, goes into a rapid decline,” he concluded. “Those of us who know what kind of competition New Zealand products will have to meet with in the world markets when this period of abnormal expenditure ends, have every reason to be very seriously disturbed regarding the future welfare of our country.”