• Grade 3 Wages for Yorkshire?
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pENDING final agreement on the grading of areas for wages purposes, in pursuance of the findings of the National Joint Conciliation Board, the employers' panel of the Yorkshire Board has passed the following resolution :—" That this employers' panel agrees that, for the time being, in the Yorkshire Traffic Area all employers operating under A and B licences be recommended to pay not less than the Grade 3 rate of wages for all services. Where higher wages are already in operation, no reductions shall be made."
It will be noted that the resolution makes no mention of that part of the interim arrangement agreed on by the National Board, whereby, in the case of purely agricultural services, the Area Boards are authorized to permit the payment of wages not more than 19 per cent, below the proposed grade for rural areas.
The resolution has aroused much criticism in trade-union circles in Yorkshire. It is contended that the resolution—which is stated to have been passed without consultation with the employees* panel—is contrary to the interim arrangement adopted by the National Board pending a settlement of the wages question. This arrangement provides that, in important industrial areas, no employer shall pay lower wages than those set out in Grade 2.
The resolution of the Yorkshire employers' panel recommends that all A and B-licence holders in the area shall pay not less than Grade 3 wages, and-it does not say that employers should not pay wages on the Grade 2 scale. The trade-union contention, however, is that employers in the large industrial centres should definitely have been advised to pay Grade 2 wages, pending a final settlement. With regard to that part of the resolution which recommends that, in cases where wages higher than Grade 3 have been paid, there shall be no reduction, the union suggests that these instances are comparatively few in number.
It is understood that the position will be reported to the National Board. As a preliminary to the next meeting of the Yorkshire Area Board, which will be held shortly, the joint sub-committee of the employers' and employees' panels will meet on January 15.
Under the auspices of the Yorkshire Area of the Transport and General Workers Union, meetings of employees will be held in various towns, later this month, to discuss questions relating to wages and conditions, and next month two area conferences will be held, one in Leeds and one in Sheffield. , The findings of the National Joint Conciliation Board were published in full in The Contmereial Motor dated January 4 last,