WAGES AND INDUSTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 153, 19 September 1927, Page 14

WAGES AND INDUSTRY

EMPLOYERS’ ASSOCIATION REVIEW OF THE YEAR Sixty new members have been added to the Employers’ Association this year, says the 26th annual report which is to be presented to the annual meeting on September 29. Radio wholesalers were added as a new trade; section. Now 12 trade sections and 20 industrial unions of employers, with a membership of 1,000, were affiliated. On the subject of the cost of living the report states that the purchasing power of the sovereign had fallen 37.9 per cent, since 1914, and wages had met this by an increase of 59.2 per cent. The report traverses the trend of wage rates. The Arbitration Court’s 19 » basic rate of Is lOd for unskilled and Is lid to 2s ljd for skilled labour had been maintained, though the court has shown a tendency to give further increases. It had endorsed the custom among local bodies of giving their men Id an hour extra. Referring to the farmers’ dissatisfaction with the court, the report only comments that a court which gives a final pronouncement in industrial disptites is necessary. The association blames the increase in wages as in some measure responsible for unemployment, and commends the Government for refusing the demand for full award rates on relief The report concludes by thanking the Labour Department for its ready assistance and co-operation.