Writing in the December issue of the Post Office Engineers' Journal, Charles: Smith,. the general secretary: of. that union wrote: - ;
‘The new Government is searching for an ‘incomes policy. this we have been told again and again by the Press...%o many txrnde unionists - perhaps particularly in the, public service and perhaps particularly in the POEU, in light of past experience - any talk of an incomes policy is calculated to raise qualms, ‘le have had from the previous Government various types of intervention in the field of the determination of incomes... /e have had a wage freeze...The Selwyn Lloyd attempt to impose a wage freeze was indeed almost calamitous. Then we had attempts to impsse a "guiding light."ec. This was a more sensible policy: but again it was one imposed from outside. - and the trade union movement has a deep aversion...to policies that are imposed upon it from outside....there is always a danger that the public sector might, during periods when the guiding light was operating, fall somewhat behind the movement of outside wages.
"The new Government clearly intends to avoid the blunders of its predecessors, It has made it quite clear that: any incomes policy must apply to all incomes - to dividends, to rent and to other forms of income as well as to wages; and it proposes to proceed by discussion and agreement with employers:and the trade union movement,” (Emphasised in. the “original )
Charles Smith then goes on to outline the familiar arguments for an incomes policy, explaining the réasons the TUC gives for supporting the idea and then deals with the difficulties such a policy faces. He lays down what he considers must be "the right background" for such a policy. These are fair taxation, reasonable soci»l security payments, no discrimination against the public sector, and finally not setting "the incomes part of the economic policy out of perspective." Developing the latter point. Smith says that "Our major need..is not to influence incomes but to raise productivity. He ends by saying: "In all this it is important to start from the point of view that real wages and real living standards ought to be going-up steadily. ‘eeethese changes have no meaning unless they do lead to higher ae standards for the majority of people."