Labour party members who do earn more than prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende while working for the government will no longer be considered for public offices such as minister or mayor, the party told NRC Handelsblad Saturday.

Party chairman Lilianne Ploumen said there was no longer room in the Dutch Labour party (PvdA) for people "who do not share our standards of austerity and servitude".

Ploumen's statement is a new twist the national debate about the reduction and control of rewards in the (semi-)public sector. In an attempt to cap salaries of those working for the government or who are paid with public money the current coalition government has been trying to limit their pay to the amount the prime minister makes, which comes down to 181,000 euros a year.

Many managers of hospitals, public broadcasting companies, housing corporations and nationalised banks however still make many times what Balkenende earns. And a number of them are also party members of the Christian democrats (CDA) or Labour, both of whom are partners in the current government. Ploumen is now threatening to exclude them from representing the party in public office.

Several Labour party members who have management positions in the (semi-)public sector have voiced discontent over the new policy, as have a number of Christian democrats who disagree with their own party's view that no one should make more than the prime minister, also a Christian democrat.

Hans Simons, a former Labour deputy minister and a former hospital director, called the move 'nonsense'. "There is no good reason why the Balkenende standard should be applied to politics. We can have a discussion about what's reasonable. It is ridiculous, for instance, for a hospital director to be making 300,000 euros, but we shouldn't make a fuss when someone is 15,000 or 20,000 euros over the Balkenende standard."

Rick van der Ploeg, an economist who was also a deputy minister, said the policy is a false solution. "Take Ad Melkert [the former party leader and minister who is currently the UN's special representative in Iraq] for example. Is he now unqualified to become minister because he has a top-class international position?"

Dirk Jan Verbeek, a hospital director and a Labour member, makes more than the prime minister. "Am I going to give in to the party? Of course not," he said. "The Labour party would do well to be proud of its members who are prepared to take up important and difficult positions in the hybrid area between the public and the private sector."

The senior coalition party CDA is also struggling with high-flying members who earn more than their party thinks they should. Christian Democrat Tini Colijn-Hooymans, a former member of the Social-Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) and currently on the board of research organisation TNO, said: "My membership of the Christian Democrat party doesn't mean that I agree with all the party's views. This is one I don't agree with."

According to an investigation by NRC Handelsblad, Joop Wijn, the former minister of economic affairs who is now second in command at state owned bank ABN Amro, has the highest salary of the members of the ruling parties that support the Balkenende standard. He makes 600,000 euros.

The 'Balkenende standard' eponym was coined in 2005 by Jan Marijnissen, the leader of the Socialist Party at the time, who said no one in the public sector should make more than the prime minister. "Balkenende is the standard," Marijnissen said at the time.