CAN BRITAIN HAVE A WAGE POLICY?
| Date | 01 June 1958 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1958.tb00357.x |
| Published date | 01 June 1958 |
| Author | ALLAN FLANDERS |
CAN BRITAIN HAVE A
WAGE
POLICY?
I
THE case for a national wage policy rests on a single and simple
premise, that there is an undefended public interest in the results
of
collective bargaining. Collective bargaining itself makes wages the
subject of policy, both the separate and the agreed policies of trade
unions and employers or their associations. An organised wage
structure in an industry is the outcome of policy decisions
;
so.
too
is a cost-of-living sliding scale in relation to the movement of wages.
But an agreed wage policy even for an industry does not amount to
a wage policy for the economy as a whole. The parties to collective
bargaining can, and often do, decide their policy without regard to
any broader interests than their own
;
and, if they wanted to, they
are in no position to take fully into account interests unrepresented at
the bargaining table.
As
wage movements, wage differentials, even
methods of wage payments, affect other elements in the national econ-
omy, and ultimately the interests
of
every citizen. a national wage
policy is needed to uphold the third party, or public, interest in wage
agreements.
The logic
of
this argument is indisputable; indeed, it is not
so
much disputed as ignored. Leaving aside the question why it could
be neglected in the days of mass unemployment, two reasons have
been most frequently advanced for ignoring it, and thus rejecting a
national wage policy, in the post-war conditions of full employment.
The first has come from those who believe that the public interest in
wages can be taken care of by financial, fiscal
or
other economic
controls. without any interference with collective bargaining. This
reason has
worn
so
thin in recent years that it now finds few un-
qualified supporters. Both Labour and Conservative Governments
have, in fact, acted on the contrary assumption. They have tried
to
pursue national wage policies. and. although their methods have
differed, they have had the same basic aim of curbing the upward
movement
of
wages in the interests of price stability. True, they have
had other strings to their anti-inflationary bows, but. for the sake
of
the strong, and generally accepted, public interest in the internal and
external value of the
f.
they have brought wages within the orbit
of
national policy.
114
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