T h e author, research officer of the A m a lga m a ted E n g in ­ eering U nion, considers the significance and the challenge of the “total wage” and the M eta l Trades A w ard based on “work values”. 1907 WAS AN H IS T O R IC YEAR for th e wage earners of Australia, for in th at year Jud g e H iggins in his H arvester Ju d g m en t established w hat was to be the p a tte rn of wage fixation for over h alf a century. O u t of this Ju d g m en t came the tw o-part wage structure of basic wage an d m argins which was u n iq u e to Australia. 1967 was an o th er ju st as historic year for the wage earners of A ustralia, for in th a t year the basic wage was abolished, the total wage was ado pted, an d the decision in the first full work-value case covering the M etal T ra d e s' A w ard was han ded down.

- A U ST R A L IA N L E F T R EVIEW how he should settle such a d ispu te as to wages, for the consti­ tu tio n, req u ire d th a t the settlem ent of the dispute be left to the a rb itra to r. So he could consequently settle it in any way he wished, p ro v id in g th at it was w ith in the req u irem en ts of the Act. T h e trade u n io n m ovem ent a p p aren tly regarded the basic wage as an im m utable p a rt of wage fixation by the a rb itratio n system. T h is w riter m ust honestly say th a t he accepted the existence of th e basic wage as trustingly as anybody els« in the trade u n io n m ovem ent u n til the em ployers first move for a total wage raised a do u b t, a n d was th en astonished to find ou t th a t there was am ple evidence th a t its lack of legal stan din g lay like a tim e bom b u n d er it w aiting to be triggered off. T h e to tal wage concept was n o t a new concept to the old A rb itra tio n C o urt an d the present A rb itra tio n Commission, as they ap p aren tly used it in th e ir wage fixation calculations.

Kamaraj Secretary NFTE Chq, Com Ashokbabu V.P Chq BSNLEU addressed. 3rd PRC/wage revision, allotment of 4G spectrum to BSNL, pension revision,. Adobe acrobat 3d 8.2 3 full version free download. The employees drawing wages up to Rs.21,000/- a month are entitled to health insurance cover and other benefits, under the ESI Act. The Act now applies to over 8.98 lakh factories and establishments across the country, benefiting about 3.19 crores family units of workers.

T h is can be seen in the analysis in T a b le 1, w hich gives the relativity of the F itte rs’ an d Assistants’ to tal wage an d m arginal relativities in the M etal T rad es Aw ard at each basic wage and m argins case, except for entries A, B, and C. B.— F irst to tal wage.

C.— W o rk value to tal wage. Aplikasi untuk membuat jalur pcb. A.— Q u arterly adjustm ents basic wage abolished.

A U STR A LIA N L E F T R EV IEW As can be seen from this table, a problem was created by the increase in the basic wage which gave p ro p o rtio n a tely m ore to the Assistant th a n to the F itter, so u p settin g th e to tal wage relativity. T h e perio dic m argins cases therefore were used as a m echanism for resto rin g the total wage relativity, and in the postw ar period they d id this w ith rem arkab le consistency, for the relativity was m a in ta in e d w ith in a range of 2.4%. T h e 1953 an d 1954 cases an d the two 1959 cases dem onstrate the op eratio n of the m echanism m ost clearly.

In 1953, the to tal wage relativity had increased substantially to 89.9%, so drastic action had to be taken to p u ll it back towards the average. T h is was done by m eans,of the abo litio n of the au to ­ m atic adjustm ents in 1953, plus the m argins decision of 1954, which gave 23/- to the tradesm en and n o th in g to the non-trades­ m an. T h e com bined effect of these two decisions was to p u ll the total wage relativity back to 83.2%. By 1959, four increases in the basic wage h a d increased th e total wage relativity to 85.1%, b u t the m argins decision of 1959 pulled it back to 82.1%. T h e later percentage increases in m argins of 10% in 1959, 28% in 1963, 1£% in 1965, an d 1, 1£, 2 and 2% in 1966, were m ath e ­ m atically those w hich were req u ire d to m ain ta in the average total wage relativity in th e face of basic wage increases. I t is difficult to believe th at such consistency in the adjustm en t of to tal wage relativities when m argins cases occurred was only accidental. In fact, because of the tw o-part structure this w ould be the only way of en su rin g sufficient consistency of to ta l wage relativities to give reasonable m arginal stab ility to the wage structure.