WAGES AND PRICES
MORE WORKERS DEMAND INCREASES THE TWO SHILLINGS AN HOUR LEVEL "The recent pronouncement of the Arbitration Court regarding tho cost of living and. the wages level is having the anticipated result," said a prominent employer to a Dominion reporter yesterday. "Large bodies of workers are coming forward with demands for increased wages; and it is hot easy to see where the end is going to bo. The furnituro trade workers, the builders and general labourers, the painters, and the engineers have lodged applications for increases, and their cases will bo heard by the Arbitration Court very shortly. I understand they are all asking for 2s. an i hour, and it is just a question how far we can go in • that direction. The increases, if granted', can only mean ■ increased prices." The position of the Engineers' Union is peculiar. This union indicated to the Arbitration Court recently that it had come to an agreement with the employers for an increase of lid. ; per hour in the war bonufe, and it asked the Court to givo the agreement, the force of an award. But since the Arbitration Court gave its recently ruling the engineers have filed a claim for a flat rate of 2s. per hour. Speaking before the Accountant Students' Society last night, Mr. B. E. Murphy, lecturer in political economy rit Victoria College, said that he was satisfied the system of compulsory arbitration in New Zealand was "played to a standstill." There was merely the shell left, and it was sound understanding that made both employers and employees in Britain hostile to compulsory arbitration. He believed that arbitration would always fail to secure industrial peaco. a and allay industrial discontent. Arbitration tended to compromise, tq put expediency before justice. The New Zealand Arbitration Court, said Mr. had been able to increase wages with advantage to the workers for a certain number of years. Those had been years when the wages barometer was rising, and when collective bargaining T?ould have secured similar results. The Court had simplv "tapned the barometer." But the _ Court had reached a place now where it could not increase Teal wages, unless it also controlled prices and profits. The increases it made simply sent up the cost of living. , —=======? ,
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Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 144, 13 March 1919, Page 6
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376WAGES AND PRICES Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 144, 13 March 1919, Page 6
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