WAGES COUNCILS AND INCOMES POLICY
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1967.tb00517.x |
| Published date | 01 November 1967 |
| Date | 01 November 1967 |
WAGES
COUNCILS
AND
INCOMES POLICY
R. F.
BANKS*
THE
operation of the long established Wages Council system has been
critically scrutinized by the National Board for Prices and Incomes, both
in terms of its effect on the remuneration of low paid workers and its effect
on the administration of a national incomes and prices policy. Members of
the Wages Councils and the unions concerned have found the conclusions
of
the Board unacceptable in important aspects. The purpose of this article
is to set the Report of the National Board for Prices and Incomes in the
wider context of the evolution of the incomes policy and as an introduction
to the memorandum of evidence presented by Mr Glyn Picton to the
National Board for Prices and Incomes and the observations made by the
Retail Drapery, Outfitting and Footwear Trades Wages Council fol-
lowing the publication of the N.B.P.I. Report.
In December 1966 the Government referred for examination by the
National Board for Prices and Incomes a proposal, made a month earlier,
by the Retail Drapery, Outfitting and Footwear Trades Wages Council
that the basic minimum wage of workers in the retail drapery trade should
be increased by 15s. a week for men and 12s. 6d. a week for women, with
smaller increases for young workers. In its reference the Government
requested the Board to have particular regard to the application of the
incomes policy criteria concerning improvements in the living standards of
the worst-off members of the community. The Board’s report was published
in March 1967. Concerning the specific merits of the Wages Council pro-
posal it recommended that the Council should reduce the size
of
its pay
award to 12s. a week for men and
10s.
a week for women and should con-
fine any increases exclusively to workers on or near the Wages Council’s
minimum rates. Moreover, the report went on to make general obser-
vations which raised doubts about the compatibility of the traditional
operation of the Wages Council system as a whole with the Government’s
prices and incomes policy.’
The conclusions of the report were criticized by the two unions con-
cerned with the retail drapery trade
-
the Union of Shop Distributive and
Allied Workers and the Transport and General Workers’ Union
-
by the
Retail Drapery Wages Council as a whole and by Mr Glyn Picton
of
Birmingham University, the Chairman of the Wages Council. In par-
ticular, following
a
request from the Minister of Labour to consider the
*
Assistant Professor
of
Labor and Industrial Relations, Michigan State University
National Board for Prices and Incomes, Report
No.
27,
Pay
of
Workers
in
the
Retail
Drapery,
OurJitting
and
Footwear
Trades,
Cmnd
3224
338
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