FREE FROM STRIKES

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1063, 29 August 1930, Page 11

FREE FROM STRIKES

EMPLOYERS REVIEW PAST YEAR I UNEMPLOYMENT QUESTION I ! •During last year, New Zealand was i free from serious industrial upheuAals like,those experienced in Aus- 1 tralia. A number of small strikes have taken place, hoAvo\’er, which unfortunately have had a tendency to increase the lack of confidence by investors in industrial undertakings, which is one of the factors responsible for depression and -unemployment,” states the 29th annual report of the Auckland Provincial Employers’ AssoIn some cases the strikes experienced j were merely flagrant attempts to inj i roduce “job control,” states the reI port. The .executive had found it i necessary during the year to pass a resolution protesting against the action I of the Labour Department in prosecut- ! ing employers for alleged petty ! breaches of the Arbitration Court ; awards, while the action of workers j in striking in defiance of the Arbitration Act was apparently condoned by tho department. j Serious consideration hud been I giv'en the unemployment problem. After reviewing the Avork of the Unemployment Committee and its findings, and reiterating the association’s objections to its proposals, it was held by tho executive of the association that the committee had ignored one of the main contributory causes of unemployment, namely,' that of the restrictive effect of Arbitration Court awards on i ndustries. BASIC WAGE In the opinion, of a large number of employers the fixing of the basic rate for Avages on a suppositious “cost of living” was economically unsound. It was argued that the only basic wage applicable to this country, whose only means of paying its debts AA r as by exporting primary products, is the Avnge value of workers’ labour in producing those products. In support of this ! argument reference was made to the I fact that the export value 6f our pro- I ducts had now fallen nearly to the pre-war level, while the producer was j called upon to pay wages value for all his requirements at about 60 per cent, above pre-war rates. But it was not alone in the matter of wages that Arbitration awards were restricting employment. There were also many other vexatious conditions, such as payment of overtime rates for work done before or after certain specified hours; special payments for certain Avork which really comes within the ordinary scope of the trade, and the forced payment of skilled workers’ Avages for what is really unskilled labotirers’ or boys’ work, etc., all of which tend to discourage the initiation of neAV industries or the extension of those already in existence. LOCAL DISPUTES During the year 23 local disputes were handled by the association’s secretary before conciliation councils or the Arbitration Court Most of the local disputes were settled in conciliation council. The Avorkers’ assessors generally recognised the futility of appealing to the court for increased \yages, and recommendations were arrived at on the lines of the existing awards. Generally, rates u£ wages had not been increased, but a notable exception occurred in the carpenters’ Dominion dispute. In this, agreement was arrived at in conciliation council, but for some inscrutable reason the employers’ assessors agreed to put all tradesmen on the same level as that for outdoor men, 2s 3|d an hour, notwithstanding that the cost of liA'ing had fallen in the meantime, and that there was no valid reason for exceeding the court’s standard rate for skilled workers at 2s 3d an hour. The membership of the association was 1,226, excluding 1,000 indirect members belonging to subsidiary affiliated bodies of employers. New members totalled 127. Subscriptions amounted to £3,496, an increase of - £3O as against last year. A net addition of £6BB Avas made to the accumulated funds, as-against £535.