Wages relativities

Press, 16 April 1979, Page 12

Wages relativities

Sir, — Years ago our international pilots obtained wages relativity with the pilots of overseas airlines — and it would seem that our domestic pilots are well on the way to reaching a similar status. Relativity in the airlines business does not stop with the pilots. For instance, air traffic controllers have a relativity of 80 per cent of a 12-year Boeing pilot, and presumably this relativity radiates through the traffic controllers staff. Other airline staff are probably paid relative to some other group, but tied ultimately to pay rates at the top

of the airline pyramid. We are thus going to have very soon the first industry in the country which is paid not according to New Zealand economic conditions, but to the scale of the most appealing operation overseas. This exposes the basic flaw of all relativity settlements; they do not make economic sense in any shape or form. — Yours, etc., ALAN FALLOON. April 14, 1979.