'FC pay warning
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NISTRY of Transport will never condone the National Freight Corporation's settling for more than a 10 per cent pay increase, a spokesman for the Ministry told CM this week.
id that the possibility eaving the NFC to join haulage contractors in t Midlands, where a 15 it pay increase has , been agreed were ;pokesman said that vice NFC employees I pensions and other 3 which would deter )m moving.
were rumours earlier !..k that the Minister of rrt would seek the disof Sir Dan Pettit, in of the NFC, if a 15 nt agreement was but this was not con Transport Minister, Rodgers, has made it , however, that any of the Government's les by the NFC for its workers would be viewed seriously.
. The NFC said this week that it was still in the process of negotiating with the Transport and General Workers Union. It seems unlikely, writes our industrial correspondent, that the pay code will be breached.
Unlike other public bodies the NFC is not in a monopoly situation and has to compete for traffic and labour in a highly commercial and competitive market.
It has been successfully commercial under its present administration. It has even made Freightliners viable and has long advocated the Government to take specific steps to make NCL equally viable.
Sir Dan's judgement of commercial situations has been as reliable as market forces permit, he is regarded by many to be a good judge of the industrial and commercial atmosphere, and in the area of industrial relations of which the NFC has an enviable record.
Sir Dan told CM this week: "My relationships with the Secretary of State are frank and cordial, and based on integrity of reporting; as they have always been with every Minister to whom I have been responsible over the past seven years.
"I would remind the Press that I am the longest serving chairman of a major nationalised industry and I would not be proud of this position if my relationships with my ministers or my sponsoring Department had been characterised by confrontation."