WAGE INCREASES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 July 1940, Page 6

WAGE INCREASES

AND WAR SACRIFICES MR MOUNTJOY CRITICISES AWARDS. BURDENS NOT EQUITABLY DISTRIBUTED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, July 8. Replying to criticism, Mr W. J. Mountjoy. Secretary of the Wellington Employers’ Association, says that when he made his comments on several recent awards of the Arbitration Court he did not attack the Labour unions concerned, but expressed anxiety at the continued policy of the Court, of increasing wages and shortening hours. He made some comment on the serious effect of such increases, particularly in reference to the difficult future which confronts people in the Dominion who arc dependent on fixed incomes, and particularly the effect of such increases on employers, whose output has been reduced because of the war and import restrictions. He referred to the danger of ever-increasing costs. Mr Mountjoy reviews a number of recent awards and goes on to say that the question has been asked, while all were expected to make sacrifices to win the war, who would really make the sacrifice in view of the wage increases foT workers. In such, cases as he had reviewed, the answer was the employer, who was required to meet his own taxation expenses and provide employees with extra wages and, in some cases, snorter hours.