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THE wage award proposed last week for road haulage workers is significant, and its outcome may accelerate progress towards a national wage policy. In the absence of a rise in the cost of living, a legitimate claim to share in the increased prosperity of the industry, proof of greater "productivity," or any other compelling reason, the unions had to fall back mainly on the Guillebaud Report on the railways. This they seem to have regarded as good ground for one of the largest demands ever made on the employers.
The Guillebaud Report recommended higher pay for railwaymen, even at the cost of a Government subsidy, mainly on the basis that, by A23 comparison with others, they were poorly rewarded. The financial capacity of the British Transport Commission to withstand the burden Was not taken into account. This principle, assuming its admissibility in special cases, is'applicable only to nationalized undertakings which can draw on public funds j to make up deficits. But no industry functions in isolation, and the actions of one must inevitably affect others.
Where minimum wages are fixed by statute, as in the case of .reed haulage, the endorsement by the Minister .of Labour. of the Guillebaud Committee's argument in the settlement of a pay claim would place the seal of-Government approval on a policy of equating wages between industries without regard to their degree of ptOfitability.: This -would :bethe thin edge of the wedge öfa national. wages. policy.
The duty of the -Road Haulage Wages Council is to ladownminimtim rates Of.pay sufficient to provide a reasonable standard of living, regardless of outside influenCes.: Thereafter; the laWs of supply and demand MuSt. be allOwed.free play.
This principle appears to have been ignored in last week's award, which seems to have been proposed on the basis that the hourly rates of pay of road haulage workers compare badly with• those in most other industries. In fact, haulage employees are commonly paid for many more hours than they actually work and the hourly rate for productive working time is higher than it appears on paper.