Yorkshire Conciliation Muddle
Page 39
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A RESOLUTION accepting the in
terim wages award which has been made by the general purposes committee of the National Joint Conciliation Board, was unanimously adopted by the Yorkshire Area Board, at a meeting in Leeds, on Tuesday. The award will operate from the first pay-day in June, and cases of non-observance will be reported to the joint secretaries. The question of final grading has been referred to a sub-committee.
The award of the National Board makes no reference to. conditions of work, as laid down in the national report, and it is understood that the National Board's findings were unanimously accepted by the employers'. panel at Tuesday's meeting, becausd' some of the employers' representatives voted for acceptance, under the impression that this did not imply acceptance of the conditions prescribed in the national report; The trade 'union contends that the award carried with it the conditions prescribed in the national agreement. Mr, Joseph Keeling, of the Yorkshire Stage Carriage Qperators Association, stated: on Wednesday, that the Yorkshire employers' panel voted for the award, on the understanding that the conditions did not apply, and he added • that the conditions had not been agreed in some other areas. Ile de. dared that his Association would not accept the award with the conditions. When the general purposes committee • dealt with the Yorkshire dispute, the Y.S.C.O.A. understood that the whole position would be reviewed, and not the wages questiOn alone. •
Trade-union proposals for the introduction, at the end of the interim period, of Grade 1 wages in Yorkshire, have already been framed, said • Mr. A, J. Heal, of Leeds, secretary of the Yorkshire and North Midlands Area of the Transport and General Workers Union, at a meeting at Bradford, last Sunday.
The Union was not, he declared, satisfied with the wages award made by the general purposes committee of the National Joint Conciliation Board (details of which were given in our columns last week), but was prepared to accept it.
Speaking of the recent negotiations of the Yorkshire Board, Mr. Heal declared that grading had had to be referred to London for decision because a minority of the employers' side of the Yorkehire Board was determined that, unless it could have " zero" rates of wages, it would not agree to anything else. These persons had no conception of the importance of the road-transport industry.
The speaker also referred to the keeping of drivers' records. He urged drivers not to be a party to the incorrect filling up of record sheets.
Mr. J. Bowman, of Leeds, commercial trade group secretary for the Yorkshire and North Midlands Area of
the Union, outlined what would happen if a minority of the employers' representatives on the Yorkshire Board declined to put the interim wages award into operation. The first step, said Mr. Bowman, would be for a deputation from the Yorkshire Board to go before the Licensing Authority. Then, when a specific case of failure to observe the rates arose, it would be reported to the Authority.
The latter would hand over the case to the Minister of Labour's representa.tive in Yorkshire, who, after investigating it, would report to the Authority. The position did not appear to be quite definite, but he (the speaker) believed that the Licensing Authority would have power to warn offenders that, unless theypaid the agreed rates, their licences might be withdrawn. An alternative method, said Mr. Bowman, was to take the cases before the Industrial Court.