IOck Act defeat Commons revolt
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Government Dock Labichen-ie that would have n dockers the right to heavy vehicles arriving irts was thrown out folig a Commons revolt by ,iberals and nationalist e sc eme, part of the lous I ock Work RegulaAct, would have given ers r gistered under the ights to perform the jobs of other workers within a half mile radius of ports and waterways.
It was designed to safeguard the jobs of dockers but in the process it also endangered the jobs of others.
Work involving the handling of cargo coming to or from ships came within the Act but cargo which was own-account or not involved with a ship was not classified. In the House of Commons on Monday night Employment Minister Albert Booth told MPs that the scheme had the support of both employers and unions.
But Tory employment spokesman James Prior told Mr Booth that the scheme had no support from the employers and he promised that a Conservative Government would produce a new scheme.
If approved, the scheme would have included warehouses and cold stores within half a mile of the waterfront and would have meant that drivers had to hand over the vehicles to dockers when arriving at ports. But the Act was watered down when amendments were passed in the House which changed the distance that these rules would apply from five miles from the waterfront to half a mile.
On Monday both Liberals and Ulster Unionist MPs lined up with Conservatives and nationalists to defeat the scheme by 10 votes.
Now the Conservatives are calling for the repeal of the complete Dockwork Regulation Act, and there is no doubt that the defeat has provided a severe embarrassment for Prime Minister James Callaghan's already harrassed Government.