The Waikato Times TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1940 ADVANCE IN AWARD WAGES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21190, 13 August 1940, Page 4

The Waikato Times TUESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1940 ADVANCE IN AWARD WAGES

Because human nature is what it is, there will be two distinct reactions to the “general order” of the Arbitration Court increasing award wages in New Zealand by 5 per cent. Those who receive the additional wages will be pleased; those who have to pay will become aware of an added financial responsibility. Somewhere between the two opinions an attempt must be made to hold the scales. That is what the Arbitration Court has attempted to do. Whether it has succeeded scientifically in striking a balance is a matter upon which much argument will be heard. One result is certain to be a small increase in the cost of living, for the increase in the wages bill is bound to be spread over the whole community.

Although in the present case the matter was probably beyond the province of the court, it is clear to most people that no general adjustment of wages should have been undertaken without at the same time giving due consideration to hours of work and the volume of production. Merely advancing wages does not solve the problem even for those receiving the extra payment. To be effective an increase in wages must be accompanied by an increase in production. Jf wages are raised out of proper relation to output an increased purchasing power will compete with a purchasable quantity of goods which has been severely restricted by wartime conditions and rises in prices are certain to follow. It is useless to say that prices can be fixed at a certain level; if that is done someone will be broken in the process.

An order increasing wages was not unexpected, but the order as it stands is the opinion of only one member of the court of three, Mr Justice Tyndall. The employees’ representative argued that the increase should be 7£ per cent, and the representative of the employers that no greater increase than 2£ per cent, was justifiable. The employees’ representative, however, did not oppose the president’s issuing what therefore became a majority ruling. “General order” is, however. a misnomer, since the order applies only to those whose employment is regulated by awards of the court. Those outside the scope of awards—and they include farmers among other large sections —must meet the additional costs of the war without the assistance of an arbitrarily increased income and at the same time assist in providing the increased wages of the section affected by the order. As a wartime measure this fixation of wages should never have been divorced from the general conditions upon which the payment of wages depends. Hours of work and volume of production should have taken a prominent part in the investigation. Thousands of workers would willingly have accepted a ruling that called for an additional contribution in effort that would have made the payment of higher wages safer from the country’s point of view and consolidated their own gains in the enhanced standard of living. They would not find it necessary to return to the court so early to ask for another increase in wages because of an advancing cost of living. And they would have the further satisfaction of having given a service of great value to their country in its time of peril.