WAGES POLICY: A COMMENT
| Date | 01 June 1958 |
| Published date | 01 June 1958 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1958.tb00363.x |
WAGES
POLICY:
A
COMMENT
THE
notion of a wages policy is ambiguous. To be made precise it
must be related to a type
of
situation and the assumptions on which
the policy is based should be made clear. Much
of
the discussion
which has taken place in recent years has accepted the position that
full employment, at least
in
the Beveridge and also in the popular
sense, carries with it the possibility of wage-induced inflation and the
advocates of a national wage policy have for the most part pre-
supposed that. however complex may be the causes
of
our recent
inflationary experiences, some part
of
that inflation has been the
results of wage movements.
In the foregoing articles two proposals are made to deal with this
type of situation. The first would revise the character of wage-fixing
procedures
so
that national settlements dealt only with minimum
wages and conditions of employment leaving the determination of
actual wages and conditions to local
or
individual bargaining. In my
view, this suggestion overestimates both the willingness of the principal
parties to accept the change unless obliged for tactical reasons to do
so.
and the difference which the change would make if it were accepted.
Changes in wage-fixing procedures, as a rule, are only significant
within a limited range. And
I
find it difficult to believe that in the
processes
of
bargaining and negotiation the distinction between national
and local considerations would be maintained in the simple manner
proposed
by
Mr.
Robertson.
The second proposal would introduce a new type
of
centralized
wage-planning. This, in some form
or
other, has been suggested by
Lord Beveridge, by Professor Kahn and by
Mr.
Flanders. But it finds
little support among any
of
the parties which are normally engaged
in wage negotiations and it has no relevance to the problems which
have arisen
or
which are likely to arise in the foreseeable future.
I
find it odd that the advocates
of
centralized wage-fixing
do
not face
up to the situation which would arise
if
the tripartite discussions
between government and the two sides
of
industry failed
to
reach
agreement.
Mr.
Flanders tells
us
that central bargaining would
remain voluntary and that failure
to
agree would be followed by
a
reversion to present practice. Arbitration
is
apparently ruled out.
I
can find no reason to endorse
Mr.
Flanders’ confidence that the
proposal, if accepted, ‘would make it more difficult for all parties to
evade their social responsibilities
’.
I62
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