MC alarm over anti-ITB campaign
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• Grave concern was expressed at the TUC last week at the campaign against Industrial Training Boards that is being mounted in certain quarters. Concern was felt about the pressure placed on Industrial Training Boards by the Department of Employment to exclude small firms from the training Levy and about the actions of certain Boards in making such exclusions and in reducing the level of levy without having taken steps to inspect the volume and content of training undertaken.
The motion (in the name of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers) asked Congress to press the Government to retain the network of Training Boards established under the Industrial Training Act and to ensure that the work of individual Boards should not be reduced but, if necessary, extended, "both in the interests of the country's economy and so as to increase the earning capacity of the workers". Positive steps to ensure that those employed in small firms had comparable opportunities for off-the-job training were urged.
The final section of the lengthy motion held that there was a need for greater centralized control of Training Boards and for increased measures to promote retraining. The General Council was asked to give serious thought to the concept of a central body, with executive powers, responsible for all training and carrying general responsibility for manpower policy and all manpower services.
The General Council, much influenced by the many speeches of delegates from areas of high unemployment, gave a firm pledge to keep Training Boards in operation and undertook to campaign on the lines of the motion.