Councillors accused of using scare tactics

Press, 13 February 1986, Page 9

Councillors accused of using scare tactics

The Labourers’ Union has accused Waimairi District councillors of using scare tactics to their political advantage.

The council’s finance and policy committee discussed on Tuesday evening how staff might have to be reduced to keep rate increases down.

’ The committee asked the council’s two executive officers for a confidential report on how a

less than 15 per cent rate increase could be achieved.

The Canterbury secretary of the Labourers’ Union, Mr Dick Lowe, said councillors’ comments that projected wage rises would push rates,up were unfair.

Mr Lowe said the council failed to mention that wage increases were settled in consultation with the employers or that wages had been fro-

zen previously for some time.

He also said he was “appalled” that councillors should publicly speculate about cutting staff.

"We think that statements like this are quite uncalled for , and that the council should not use tactics which scare the staff they employ.”

Mr Lowe felt that making the possibility of cutting staff to reduce rate increases public was an election ploy to put councillors in ratepayers’ good books.

“They are using this as a gimmick. Quite frankly, I’m disgusted,” he said. Ratepayers would “lose out” with less staff because of less maintenance and service. The union was concerned, he said, with the vulnerability of lowerpaid staff as they were more likely to lose their jobs in the case of redundancies.

The chairman of the Waimairi District Council, Mrs Margaret Murray, said councillors were simply “doing their homework.” Nothing had been decided.