§ Mr. Maurice Macmillanasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) whether he intends to take action against companies which have given wage rises above 175W the 10 per cent. limit due to the inclusion of purported productivity deals, and where the expected rise in productivity has subsequently failed to materialise but the extra wages have been paid;
(2) of the stage 3 settlements monitored by his Department which have involved wage rises of more than 10 per cent. due to the inclusion of productivity clauses, if he is satisfied that in the substantial majority of such wage bargains the productivity element was genuine.
§ Mr. Albert BoothI am satisfied that the substantial majority of productivity deals of which my Department is aware are genuine. In any case where the anticipated rise in productivity failed to materialise, we would expect the company to take steps to bring the scheme back into conformity with the Government's guidelines. If such steps were not taken we would need to consider the use of the discretionary powers referred to in paragraph 16 of the White Paper "The Attack on Inflation after 31st July 1977" (Cmnd. 6882).