CONSCIENCE KEEPER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 897, 14 February 1930, Page 11

CONSCIENCE KEEPER

ARBITRATION COURT’S WORK

METHODS OF WAGE-FIXING

“The Arbitration Court is regarded as the keeper of New Zealand’s national conscience of the industrial conditions and the rates of pay for the Dominion,” declared Mr. Justice Frazer this morning, in an interesting outline of the principles on which the court operated.

The homily was prompted by some doubt in the minds of parties to the application for an award for the wholesale ironmongery and hardware assistants by the Auckland Storemen’s and Packers’ Union, concerning the basis on which the court fixed wages and conditions of work in the various trades and industries coming under its jurisdiction. The Judge pointed out that the court was empowered to fix minimum rates of wages, which should apply to workers who were just efficient, just competent and no more. It was left to the employer as he thought fit to adjust a standard of pay for employees whose ability and qualifications were higher. In Australia, for instance, said his Honour, there was a tendency to fix wages on a minimum basis, irrespective of the merits of the individual workers, and some years ago New Zealand unions held the opinion that, because some employees were paid on a higher scale than others, this standard should be generally accepted as the minimum rate of wages* throughout the particular industry. This attitude, however, had been gradually disappearing in this Dominion, the Judge said. It was recognised that there was a tendency to bring rates of pay down to a minimum, and the court adjusted wages on this basis, having regard to the cost of living ruling at that particular time, economic conditions of the country and the position of the industry in which an award was sought. “It is recognised at the present time that all trades and industries are experiencing slack, and lean times,’" the Judge asserted. This situation occurred previously and and we got out of it; it will happen again and we will overcome it again.”

One of the underlying principles of the court’s operations was to fix a standard of wages, taking into consideration the condition of the industry during times of depression, so that wages would not bear heavily on the average employer and yet permit him to pay more to men exceeding average ability.