Wages: Yorkshire Furore — North - West Quieter T ROUBLE concerning wages and working conditions
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of goods-tranhpost -employees in the Yorkshire Area tOok S dramatic turn on . Tuesday. After the employees' panel of the Area Conciliation Board had rejected the employers' new proposals, the masters intimated that they intended to put them into operation as from March 1. A :formal -resolution in favour of the proposals was then moved and seconded from the . employers' side, but, before it could be put, the emp/byees' representatives left the room.
Employers Reject Grade 1.
The employers' proposals exclude Grade 1 wages and provide for only tWo grades, called, Grade A and Grade B. which are equivalent to the Grade 2 and Grade 3 scales of the National Board. Grade A is for industrial districts and Grade B is for rural districts. The operators hold that there is no longer any conciliation agreement in Yorkshire, as the interim agreement—which they decline to continue—was dated to ' expire on December 91 last, whilst the independenrawand made by Sir Richard Redraa3,ne, chairman of the National Board's Appeals Committee, even if it were accepted, is not due to come into operation until October 1 next. •
It is understood that, in determining to put their proposals into operation, the employers hold that they will comply with the fair wages clause of the Road Traffic Act, in that the wages and conditions will be generally recognized by good employers.
An official statement from the employers' panel states that it was agreed_ by the panel that these wages
and general working "conditions., shall apply to the whole of the area, and that the employers' panel shall take such action as it•Considers necessary to ensure that they are adhered to by, all public carriers -in the area.
The proposals are stated to have the, solid support of the following::-
Associated Road Operators, Commercial Motor Users Association, Yorkshire Stage Carriage Operators Association, Bradford and District Commercial Vehicle Owners Association, transport section of the Bradford Chamber of Trade, Sheffield Horse and Motor Owners Association, Doneaster and District Rates Committee, and Halifax Transport Owners Association. -
The official details of the employers' proposals confirm the outline which has already appeared in The Commercial Motor. Wages are based on a cumulative 48-hour week. Overtime is to be paid for the first eight hours after 48 hours at time-and-one-eighth, and at time-and-a-quarter thereafter, Sunday work is to be paid for at timeand-a-half. The following holidays are to be paid for:—Christmas Day, Good Friday, the four Bank Holidays, and all nationally proclaimed holidays. If a man works on any of these days, he will receive an additional day's pay.
Subsistence allowances are similar to those laid down by the National Board, except that the period for which the allowance' shall not exceed Sc. is extended to 14 hours.
North-Western Position.
Higher rates for men when they drive from a lower-rated district to one of a higher grade proved to be the only stumbling-block to a settlement of the area wage question, at the meeting of the North-Western Conciliation Board, on Monday. As previously reported in The Commercial Motor.
the employers' side in the North-West has until now refused to put into force the awards of the appeals committee of the National Board,
At Monday's Meeting, the employees again urged the . acceptance of the appeals committee's awards in toto and they, together with five of the employers' representatives, voted this way. This proposition was opposed by seven of the employers' side. The latter membersthen voted in favour of a resolution accepting the appeals cornnaittee's findings, provided that the employees would agree to omit the higher-rating section. The employees and five of the employers' side opposed the omission. An offer was made by the outside area employers to agree to Grade 2 'for everywhere outside the cities provided that higher rating was eliminated, but neither the unions nor the city employers would agree.
Strike Threats Unnecessary.
" There is no need whatever for threats of strikes," said an " outside " operator, with over 30 years' experience, to The Commercial Motor, after the meeting. " Agreement has ben reached on all major points except this higher-rating clause and it must be agreed that the city operators are entitled to some protection from any risk of rate-cutting by outsiders. I would suggest to the employers that the higher-rating clause should be agreed to in principle, but that it should not be operated until the whole of the grading be completed for other districts in the area, the final date of this to be decided by the Area Board. When that is done, the problem will, in all probability, solve itself."