New freeze on bus pay?
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• The Government is expected to issue a fresh "freeze" Order adding a further three months to the delay period on the rises for 77,000 municipal busmen: the PIB recently found their deal incompatible with wages policy.
TGWU leaders told Mrs. Barbara Castle, Minister for Employment and Productivity, last week that they were not prepared to forgo the rises by voluntary restraint. So unless the Minister uses her new powers (at present in White Paper form only) the busmen should get their £1 rises at the end of July, The Government has still done nothing to prevent backdating of the rises, so that the men can demand pay back to December—a lump sum of about £30 each. Employers will, however, have a defence at law against payment for the period of the compulsory freeze Orders. Alderman Norman Harris, leader of the municipal bus employers, said last week that he could not imagine any corporations being able to resist backdating any legal payment.
Productivity talks are unlikely to start until the rises are unfrozen. At a delegate conference in London on Wednesday, the TGWU put a five-point plan on both the productivity bargaining andthe £1 a week rises. It was agreed, with the proviso that another national delegate conference would be convened if legislation was introduced which prevented employers paying the backdated increase on July 26.