APPLICATIONS FAIL

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21219, 16 September 1940, Page 9

APPLICATIONS FAIL

WAGE ORDER EXEMPTION COURT GIVES DECISIONS COMMENT ON PRICE CONTROL Three applications by employers’ organisations for exclusion from the Arbitration Court’s general order increasing award wages by 5 per cent have been refused by the court. The awards concerned were those of the New Zealand local bodies’ (rural section) labourers’ the bakers and pastrycooks’ and their labourers, with the horse drivers and clerical workers in the industry; and the lime workers of the northern. Taranaki, Wellington. Nelson, Westland, anrl Canterbury districts. Answering the employers’ arguments in the case of the county council employees, the court said that although it gave certain increases in wages in the recent new award it did so to bring the rates into line with those paid to workers doing very similar work for other local authorities; but in view of the fact that the hearing of the application for a general order was pending, no cognisance was taken of the increased cost of living, as this factor was one of the principal matters which the court was directed to take into account before making a general order. Primary Producers Concerned

The improvements in conditions granted in the recent award were mainly the result of agreement by the parties in Conciliation Council. The court gave the fullest consideration to the position of the primary producer before making the general order, and it could not accept the inference that rural local authorities were less able to pay the same rates of wages as were paid by urban local authorities for similar service. In reference to the union’s application lor a 15 per cent increase, the court said it could not see that any adequate reason had been submitted to justify a variation in treatment of the employees of rural local authorities as compared with workers generally. Both applications were refused. Price Control Factor In refusing the bakers and pastrycooks’ application, the court said the employers’ advocate had indicated that the principal economic and financial condition affecting the industry was the fact that the retail prices of certain products of the industry were controlled and could not be increased without the authority of the appropriate tribunal. It was claimed and proved that substantial increases in costs had accrued in the industry since the last award was made. The court could not, however, accept the existence of price control in an industry as an adequate reason for the exclusion of the workers in that industry from the operation of the general order.

Commenting on the lime workers employers’ application, the court said that to recognise the existence of price control as an adequate reason for making an order for exclusion would be tantamount to the acceptance of an unjustifiable delimitation of the court’s jurisdiction. The court did not agree that the burden of recent increases was unfair as compared with the position in other industries.