WAGE FIXING

Hokitika Guardian, 30 September 1929, Page 7

WAGE FIXING

ARBITRATION COURT CRITICISED

' EMPLOYERS’ DIFFICULTIES

AUCKLAND, Sep. 20,

“It is a matter of regret that the Arbitration Couit cannot relax some of its rigidity and be a little more elastic in its awards to enable employers to meet falling prices and changing trade conditions which arc taking place. If this is done, it would be a step towards rapid recovery, and unemployment would be considerably curtailed. Unfortunately, the Court has shown very little inclination to meet the position. In fact, some critics are of the opinion that the Court lias degenerated into a wage and conditions fixing tribunal regardless of production costs or the earning power •of the workers in the various industries.”

In these terms Mr Albert Spencer, the president, addressed himself to today’s annual meeting of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ Association. “This wage-fixing Court,” he added, “only directly benefits a small fraction of the wage earners of the country. The rest of the workers, who come under no awards, get no direct benefit from the Court. On the contrary, the purchasing power of wages is reduced. There are a great number of people with fixed incomes, such as old-age pensioners, widow's, clergymen, shareholders, and property owners, who find it almost impossible to live on the greatly reduced purchasing power of their incomes, The same thing is happening in Australia under the Arbitration Act, but there when wages are increased the * employers immediately make application to the Customs authorities for a higher duty on importations.

“In New Zealand the original intention was that the Court should be a Court of Appeal to decide disputes which could not be adjusted in conciliation. The rise in wages was simply a manifestation of the general rise of prices. Prices have fallen in some cases to below pre-war level, and tjie Court is finding itself unable to reduce wages accordingly It has been found that many employers bound bv the Court awards have had to abandon the manufacture of certain lines as the margin of profiit had disappeared and a loss was being made. It ’.would appear that if the Court attempted to increase the hours of work or reduce w r ages the workers will not pboy it.

“The recent strikes in Australia a lid the consequent suggestions to do away with the Arbitration Court altogether is a warning of what might happen in New Zealand if a similar course is followed. If the Court maintains the rate of wages at the .present uneconomic level and people find that they are paying more for the work than they can get it done for by those working on their own, the whole system will collapse under its own weight.”