National Board Grades Yorkshire Area
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THE decision of the general purposes committee of the National Joint Conciliation Board on the grading of the Yorkshire Traffic Area is a compromise between the conflicting proposals of the Yorkshire employers' and employees' panels. The matter was referred to the general purposes committee, because of the failure of these two panels to reach agreement.
No official announcement concerning the decision of the general purposes committee, which is for the interim period to July 1, had been issued at the time of closing for press, but the decision was dealt with by Mr. F. G. Bibbings, general secretary of the Yorkshire Stage Carriage Operators Asssociation, in a speech at a Y.S.C.O.A. meeting at Dewsbury, on Monday.
The decision provides that Grade 2 wages shall apply in the south-western part of the Yorkshire Traffic Area within a line drawn from the Yorkshire-Lancashire boundary on the east side of Barnoldswick to the northwest of Skipton, thence continuing in an eastward direction north of Skipton, south-east of Crosshills, south of Ilkley, north of Otley, Pool and Harewood, and south of Spofforth . to the north side of York. Then the border of the Grade 2 zone turns south, join ing the Yorkshire Lincolnshire boundary a little way east of Goole. Glade 2 wages shall also apply within a 12-mile radius of Hull, including Beverley.
Grade 3 wages shall apply in the rest of the area.
The general purposes committee has made the Grade 2 part of the area. larger than the employers wanted and smaller than the employees wished. A point has been gained by the employers' panel by the fact that Bridlington, Scarborough and Whitby, which the employees wished to be placed in Grade 2, have been placed in Grade 3, whilst, in the West Riding, Ilkley, Harrogate and Knaresborough have been excluded from Grade 2. Nevertheless, it appears that trade-union circles are better satisfied with the decision than is the employers' panel.
When the employers' panel of the Yorkshire Area Board met in Leeds, on Monday, to consider the decision of the general purposes committee of the National Board, there was some talk of resignations from the panel as a protest, However, it was ultimately decided that, before any further action is taken, all the employers' associations represented on the panel should submit the terms of the decision to their members, whose views will be submitted to a meeting of the Yorkshire employers' panel in Leeds on May 21, prior to a meeting of the full Yorkshire Area Board, in Leeds, on the same day.
The employees' panel of the Yorkshire Board will also meet in Leeds next Tuesday to consider the decision
-of the general purposes committee, prior to the meeting of the full Board..
Strenuous opposition to the wages decision is already being put forward by the Yorkshire Stage Carriage Opera tors Association. The questionnaire which, not long ago, it addressed to A and B licence-holders in the area, with a view to obtaining support for its counter-proposals on wages and conditions, is to be repeated in the light of the decision of the National Board. Failing an agreement which it approves, the Y.S.C.O.A. will recommend its members to put into operation its counter-proposals, but no action on these lines has yet been taken.
In his speech at Dewsbury, on Monday, Mr. Bibbings said that under no consideration would the Y.S.C.O.A. take the decision "lying dOwn." Re ferring to the part of the decision which provides that, where an operator in a higher-graded district picks up or sets down goods in a lower-graded district, he shall pay the higher rate of wages, Mr. Bibbings said that chaos would arise from this provision.
Mr. Bibbings suggested that some socalled settlements in other areas were not really settlements, as they had not been made by representatives who had the mandate of rank-and-file operators.
Mr. J. Keeling said the decision showed a lack of knowledge of local conditions. There was a growing feeling, he said, in favour of the establishment of a Northern Conciliation Board for Yorkshire, Lancashire, the Northern Traffic Area and Scotland, which, instead of being dictated to by a body in London, would formulate wages and working conditions and submit them to London tor approval.
Final grading in Yorkshire -after the expiration of the interim period has still to be dealt with, and the National Board's general purposes committee expresses the hope that the Yorkshire Area Board "will proceed forthwith" with this work. When this question is considered, it is expected that the employees' panel will ask for Grade 1 wages in most of the places which the general purposes committee has placed in Grade 2 for the interim period.