Company deal
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on PIB lines?
from our industrial correspondent • A new pay and productivity deal for 110,000 company busmen will be placed before a delegate conference in London today.
The agreement was reached at a meeting of the National Council for the Omnibus Industry last week; and Mr. Larry Smith, national officer of the Transport and General Workers Union, says that the main provisions follow "religiously" the recommendations of December's report by the Prices and Incomes Board.
They are as follows:—
(1) Payment of a graduated bonus of up to 12s a week for stage work in urban conditions.
(2) Payment of lOs a week bonus for all platform staff on conclusion of local productivity agreements on the extension or introduction of one-man buses.
(3) Payment of a percentage addition to the basic rate for men who actually operate oneman buses (i.e. 15 per cent for rulal singledeck operations; 20 per cent for urban single-deckers; 171 per cent for rural doubledeckers; 22+ per cent for urban doubledeckers).
The maximum increase from the deal, which has yet to be approved by the Government, is about 35s a week. Present basic rates are £12 14s 10d for a driver; but his average earnings based on an average working week of 55.7 hours in July 1967 were £22 1 Os 9d.
Mr. Smith says that because of savings from increased productivity, the deal is unlikely to lead to fare rises; these savings will be kept under review and the unions can be expected to demand a further wage increase if they rise above present estimates.
The PIB also proposed that the gap of 2s 2d between the company and municipal rates for drivers should be eliminated throughout the company sector; this was rejectedby the company employers, but the unions are expected to pursue this claim again when the gap is widened by the municipal busmen getting the £1-a-week rise at present delayed by the Government.