It is an established fact that the problems facing the economic systems in
Western Europe and also in America are great. Almost everywhere in these
areas, inflation and unemployment are in urgent need of solution. Political
systems are under pressure and only in a few countries can one speak of a
general confidence in the groups in government.
Enterprises functioning within these unstable systems are frequently allocated
a task and responsibility which are out of all proportion to their real possibilities.
One example of this is the policy regarding jobs, as it is gradually developing
in the Netherlands and also elsewhere.
Industry is seeing a shift here in the ideas about social responsibility for numbers
of jobs and employment from government to the enterprise. Such a shift is
taking place whilst an individual enterprise has to face the fact that with regard
to a large number of elements which are relevant for it, the possibility of control
is becoming increasingly smaller. The development of wages and prices is tied
by government measures and other factors which cannot be influenced by the
enterprise. No influence can be exerted on inflation by an individual enterprise.
It is therefore meaningful to endeavour for the longer term to lay down the role
which each of the components in the social system can and ought to play. The
idea must also be abandoned of introducing incidental measures and laws
which are presented as a particular vision, but which in reality have the effect
of spoiling the social climate, whilst they may lead to an advantage which is
negligible for the interested groups, or even a disadvantage. The statutory
enactment regarding Capital Growth Sharing, which has been put forward
on political grounds, may serve as an example.
If Capital Growth Sharing, as is contended, is really being introduced for reasons
of justice, a system of capital loss sharing should at least be linked with it.
Furthermore, already existing remuneration systems such as profit-sharing
arrangements in any form should be taken into account.
The attempt to introduce the present unbalanced and useless arrangement is
creating lack of confidence in the economic system, a lack of confidence which
is also evident from the persistently hesitant climate of the stock exchange.
The consequent reluctance to invest in the Netherlands, on the part of both
Dutch and foreign enterprises, can only be removed by a balanced policy. The
investor does not now know whether - if and when his project is realized - he
will not perchance be doomed by a mistake, such as the Groundwater Act
passed in the Second Chamber of the States General, or by the price control/
inflation squeeze to excessively low returns or perhaps even permanent losses.
What will be essential in a harmonious approach is that a workable balance
should be achieved between central workers' and employers' organizations,
and that both should be prepared to be guided in that connection by considera
tions of reasonableness. At the present moment one certainly cannot speak of
balance, and yet there is no question of a real conflict of interests. Fortunately
there are indications that this is being increasingly realized.
The above is by no means a plea for the retention of completely or partly out
dated social structures. On the contrary, the usefulness of the turbulence in
which we have lived for a number of years is that the value of the individual and
the need to give this value a much more central position, also in business de
cisions, have gained great prominence.
But working constructively with these newly acquired insights is still in the
initial phase and is too often in danger of being subordinated to the factors of
(power) politics mentioned at the beginning of this section.
In the consolidated companies of the Group there were 18,555 persons em
ployed on September 30, 1977, compared with 14,236 persons at the end of
the previous financial year.
14
