The Gazette 1967/71

profits in areas where full competition existed. In the N.LE.C.'s view the need was to concen trate attention mainly on areas where competition was imperfect or non-existent and on ensuring that price surveillance had the appropriate cover age. F.U.E. addendum The three representatives of the F.U.E. on the N.I.E.C., Mr. P. H. Gree, Mr. Charles R. Cuffe, and Mr. Daniel McAuley, stated in an addendum that they considered that the proposals in the report would make a greater contribution to the over-all objective of achieving a closer relationship between the growth in money incomes and the growth in output if they were accompanied by arrangements which would assist in containing industrial relations matters. They said they were conscious of the views of trade unions on such questions as intervention by the State in collective bargaining, statutory wage controls and compulsory arbitration. They respect ed these views and to some extent snared the concern of those who expressed reservations about the value of legislation and legal sanctions in in dustrial relations matters. They believed, therefore, that the viability of an incomes and prices policy on a purely voluntary basis would ultimately depend on the willingness of the parties engaged on collective bargaining to renounce force as a means of securing short-term sectional advantages. The work of the N.I.E.C. in enunciating guide lines for money incomes, the task of the new employer-employee body in translating these guide-lines into terms which would be operation ally useful in collective bargaining and the investi gations and findings of the Labour Court would be of considerably greater value and significance if there was a commitment by both sides of industry to use only peaceful methods for resolving indus trial disputes, the F.U.E. representative said. They considered that such a national commit ment should be made, limited if necessary to a specified period, so that the present inflationary pressures in the economy, to the extent to which they were generated by excessive increases in money incomes, could be reduced. A statement issued by the Federated Union of Employers welcomed the proposal that the State 17

N.I.E.C. could not effectively carry the discussion of farmers' incomes further than this. It hoped, however, that this deficiency would soon be remedied. The report showed that if the position of lower- income workers were to be improved, other workers would have to accept increases less than justified by the rise in national production. "The effectiveness of incomes and prices will depend", it said "on the percentage increase in aggregate money incomes being so related to the percentage increase in national production that competitiveness is not endangered. It follows that if some groups get a percentage increase higher than this, others must accept a lower percentage increase. If they do not, then the rise in total money incomes will be excessive. "This principle is particularly relevant where efforts are directed to raising the relative position of low-income groups in the community. By definition, the increase for these groups must be greater than the national average in order to improve their relative position and other groups must accept a. smaller increase". More productivity If the pay of low-paid workers was to be raised to the socially desirable level, intensive efforts were needed to raise the productivity of the enterprises in which they were employed or to offer them opportunities to transfer to enterprises which were more productive. In addition to wage increases, family allowances and other re-distributive measures were relevant to the improvement of the position of low-paid workers. The improvement in children's allow ances initiated in the last Budget was both rele vant and welcome. "We would hope," the report said, "that there is general acceptance in the community of the desirability of raising the standards of low-income groups to a level in keeping with present-day needs and this should be seen to be one of the objectives of an incomes and prices policy". The Federation of Irish Industries, the report said, was dissatisfied with the present price control by the Department of Industry and Commerce and was concerned that price control might be come "profit control." The F.U.E. held that it was hard to justify interference with either prices or