Agreement on Municipal Bonus Scheme P

12th November 1965, Page 80

12th November 1965

Page 80

Page 80, 12th November 1965 — Agreement on Municipal Bonus Scheme P

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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT THE National Joint Industrial Council

for the Road Passenger Transport Industry was expected at its meeting due to be held in London yesterday (Thursday) to give final agreement to a bonus scheme for more than 72,000 municipal busmen. The matter has been outstanding ever since the independent inquiry on pay, held earlier this year, left this issue and the 40-hour week to be settled by the parties. It took the good offices of Ministry of Labour conciliation officers to bring about a settlement. Asreported in The

Comercial Motor on October 8, the employers offered the unions special bonus payments based on length of service. Under the scheme a busman with six months' service would be entitled to a bonus of 11)s, a week and this would go up to 12s. 6d. after one year, to 20s. after five years. to 25s. after 10 years and to 30s. after 20 years.

But the employers also insisted that if a man took part in an unofficial strike he would forfeit half of his yearly bonus, which for a long-service man could amount to as much as £39. This the unions, the Transport and General Workers and the General and Municipal Workers, refused to accept. They did tell the Ministry of Labour, however, tha they were willing to let the penalty clause go to a third party for arbitration ant were prepared to accept this verdict, eve' if the clause remained in some form.

This provided a basis for a compro mise when the Ministry called in the twc sides last week for joint talks. It ww agreed provisionally that joint committee! of investigation, headed by an independent chairman, should look into unofficia disputes to decide whether any part ol the bonus payment should be withhelc from the men involved.

'The bonuses will remain the same as previously offered by the employers, but there will be no automatic loss if there is an unofficial strike. Mitigating circumstances can be taken into account and no doubt will be put forward to the committee of investigation. But so far as the employers are concerned there will remain a powerful deterrent to make busmen think twice before taking action.

There was some progress, too, last week on the companybusmen's side when a working party representing unions and employers agreed in principle on a sick-pay scheme for the 100,000 men and women in that part of the industry. The proposals will still have to be approved at a meeting of the full National Council for the Omnibus Industry later this month.

It is understood that under the scheme, which will be non-contributory, there will be a basic payment of £4 Os. 641. a week, with the length of the weekly payment being dependent on years of service, ranging from six weeks for up to 10 years' service to 18 weeks for 20 years' service and over.

The Committee of Inquiry, which investigated the company busmen's pir claim earlier this year. pointed out that the company-owned buses were the only major bus transport section in which no sick-pay scheme had been introduced for traffic staff. The Committee thought that a scheme should be introduced and that both sides should work out the details. At that time the employers estimated that the cost of a sick-pay scheme would be more than £1m. a year.

With this problem out of the way the six unions with members in this sector are now expected to go after two other objectives—a 40-hour week and a bonus payment. As both these have now been granted to the municipal busmen there is expected to be little more than token resistance to their introduction for the

company men. This will then clear the last of the claims outstanding from the last round. The next round is likely to begin early in the New Year with a new general pay claim.

Agreement on Municipal Bonus Scheme P

Page 80

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