based on 'Eeonornist! report,
“‘Pacomakers ac ever in wases, it is Telland's hesvy enginecring and shipbuilding industry, whose omployers snd unions .gresd this week on a now collective contract fer next yoar comprisins of a 10% wage inerease, This is part of a wage pressure that will put Holland to the severest of its postwar tosts; thore is o cloar danger of major damage to the ecomomic and social devalepmant ao cerefally nurtired over the past five years, This progress has followed success i, holding dewn internel costs, Strain in the labcur market was inovitably translated into demands for highsr wages, and the paying of "black" wageg spread rapidly over = numbor of industries. liowevea., these concealed wage incronses did not serve to check unrest, nnd workers in saveral industriss, indspendently of the unions in somes cases, demanded substantial wage increases and a cash bomig to be paid before the end of the year. Some workors, particularly in tho metal industry, added emphasis tc: their demands by staging short unofficial strikes. The terms of national wage agrsenents prevented many, ctherwise willing, employers from mesting the wasa demands,Morecver, employers who ignored the agraement and started to pay hivsher tees wero fined by the governnent.
But the engineering agreement has followed upon negotiations between the leaders of the three main union federations and the omployers' organisations on a new collective agraomment for 1964, on conditions of omploynont, ond new scoial security measures, Their recommendations, which the govurnment has accepted, call for a goneral wage increase of 9 from January next, to be follcwad, within a few months, by a second increase varying fron between 2 and 5 % Ths unions have also agreedthat becouss of the size of tha wage increasa employers should be allowed to make certain price incranses,
Tose price increases will only portly offset what is a fairly large shift in the division of the national inconsa, At the same tins the government has announced ite intontion to increase tho teres on cigarettes and petrol, and it has left no doubt that further measures will be taken at short notice should the need ariss.