EMPLOYER'S CASE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 187, 25 August 1937, Page 7

EMPLOYER'S CASE

— Preas Assooiatlon.)

No Justification For Altering Present Standard INDUSTRY AND COSTS

(By Teleeraph

AUCKLAND, Last Night. The view that there was no justification for 'What he submitted' was* the' Arbitration Gotirt's present standard of wages being depafted from' was ex-. pressed by Mr. D.* I. MacDOnald, secrotary of the Canterbury Employef s ' Association, in opening the employers' case when the Arbitration Court continued its hearing of the standard wage arguments. Mr. Justice O 'Began preside'd and, with him were assoeiated Mr. W.,,Cecil Prime (employers ' member) and Mr. Aj L. Monteith (employees' member). "In. deference to the wishes. of the . Court the.. New Zealand Employers ' * JTederation in conjunction with the Manufacturers'. Pederation, Parmers ' Union, Sheepowners' Union and all groups of employers affiliated to the - Bmployers ' Pedferation has decided to Submit its rOpresentations >through one advocate and one- or two witnesses only will be •called by me," Mr. MacDonald said. "The trend under the recent legis- , lation has been to ■ oxtend the field of industry over which the Court has a direct influence," ho continued. ".The effect of the pronouncement of the Court following the present hearing will therefore be nioro widespread than has ever been the case in the past and the importance of the Court fixing rates at levels appropriate to the economic con-i dition of the country is therefore prob ably greater to-dav than ever previously." Various general wage movements which have taken placo from time to time during the life of the Court up to the 1925 pronouncement were traced by Mr. MacDonald. Ho submitted that generally the Court 's present standard rates were: Unskilled, 2s 0.2d an hour; eemi-skilled, 2s 1.3d to 2s 4.05d; skilled, 2s 5.7d. These rates were arrivdd at by equating. the 1925 standard to the 40-hoUr week from the 44-hour week. The economic condition of the country was Teviewed by Mr. MacDonald. He submitted that at a time of rising prices such as the present it was all the more important that the Court should weigh most seriously the ability of New Zealand 's industries to flourish under increased costs. Wages increases could not fail to inerease the costs of production and in many cases such increases were cumulative. Increased costs and prices must in tho end result in xeduced consumption followed by a falling ofE in production and empioyment. The major cause of the xapid inerease in unemployment in New Zealand from 1929 onward was undoubtedly the in-t ability of industrialists, both primary and secondary, to get their internal costs adjusted to the reduced spending power which. xesulted from the fall- in export prices.. Any inerease in internal costs in excess of the improvements in export prices at the present stago in New Zealanfi's recovery from the dopression could not fail to set back this -recovery. Mr. MacDonald held that wages had rispn considerably more than retail "nd wholesale prices over the last year, c&isequently the correct conelusion £ould be drawn that the position of the wageearner to-day was much better .than it was twolve months ago. The latest statistics showed that the average of wage rates was now 64 per cent. higher .than in 1914 but the cost of living was only 46. 3 per cent. higher. Tho cost of living at present indicated no necossity to inerease wage Tatcs but rathei; vthe jreverse. "I most deiinitely submit that tho Court would be making a serious crror if it departed from the praetice of many years of fixing its standard rates in aecordance with the cost of living and the general economic condition of the industries of tho country as a whole and not the eeonomic position of a few of the m.ore sheltered industries or groups of workers. "I eonsider 4d to 5d an hour is ample margin to exist between the unskilled and skilled rate insofar as any standard fixed by this Court is concerned. Tho Court has to fix a gencTal set of Tates based on the major considerations of past standards, cost of living and general economic conditions. Any failure to act on theso factors, particularly were the present tendency to recovery to be suddenly arrested, would only intensify its difficulties towards adjustnient in the future. The Court has in all previous general pronouncements recognised the necessity i'or deelaring standard rates on an hourly basis and there sdems to be no necessity for departing from this custom." -•

In aid of the Centr'al Hawke's Bay Queen Carnival, a shipwreek ball is to be held in McDonald's woolshed, Springhill, to-morrow (Tliursday). Monte Qarlo dances, spot waltzes and other competitiou dances are included on tho programme.