The taole below summarises the changes in productivity.

EMPLOYMENT AND OUTPUT FOR 1966 EXPRESSED
AS PERCENTAGE OF 1961

Employment  Quitput Output per Man
M anufacturing 123 159 129
Construction 79 129 163
Public Ultilities 67 152 223
Commerce 100 154 154
Transport/ Comm—
unications 119 152 123

Though the increase in wages in the sixties was considerably
large, it should be viewed in the light of the low level at which
those wages had been previously. It is significant that the wage in-
crease did not lead to any fall in profits: ‘The average wage in-
crease has not led to an average decline of profits and investment.
On the contrary, the surplus appears to have increased from 12.7
per cent of nation income in 1960 to 14.5 per cent in 1966'.'¢
Many however have tended to over-emphasise the rise in wages
during the early sixties and by propounding arguments of pseudo-
socialism have tended to see in the increases a process of social
differentiation. The Permanent Labour Tribunal was insituted
precisely for the purposes of curbing wage increases which the
government, and the Commission charged with investigating the
trade union organisation, deemed to be contrary to ‘socialistic

development’:

_in the interest of the nation, and especially of the 95 per cent of
the population who are not wage-earners, some brake must be applied
on NUTA's ability to win substantial wage concensions. . . The Com-
mission has referred to the need to prevent inequalities in levels of
wages paid to wage-earners. An earlier finding of the Commission
refers to the fact that over the past few years the per capita income of
wage-earners has outstripped that of the peasant. These developments
are contrary to the principles of socialistic development. All must make
progress; together, and no sector of the community should be allowed
to progress at a rate which imperils improvement for others.

The underlying assumption of this argument is that there is a
casual relationship between workers incomes and peasants

 

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