Wages policy decision soon
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UNIONS' AND OPERATORS' associations in the coach industry are being brought together by the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to try to thrash out a national policy on wages.
This is due to pressure from the Transport and General Workers' Union which hopes that a National Wages Council for the coach industry can be set up. This body would have the power to set mandatory minimum wage levels throughout the country. The ACAS brief is to report on whether or not national negotiating machinery should be established. The committee chairman is Mr John Hanlon chairman of the Northern Traffic Commissioners until his retirement last year. The other two members are Mr John Birch of the Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport and Sir Harry Nicholas, former general secretary of the Labour Party and full-time Transport and General Workers' Union official. The committee has arranged meetings with the national organisations and invited written evidence from them. Any other body or individual is also free to write to the committee.
' Although the committee has no legal powers to implement its recommendations it aims to arrive at a consensus so that the plans are put into force voluntarily. "Nine times out of ten the ACAS recommendations are adopted," said a spokesman.