Council Bus Workers Want Still More Pay
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NOTICE of a further claim for higher wages has been given to municipal bus undertakings by the Transport and General Workers' Union, representing 70,000 employees. -No details have yet been given, and it is expected that these will not be decided upon for some .weeks.
So far, notice of similar proposals has not been served on provincial company bus operators, but it is expected that this will follow soon, according to established custom.
A pay award, costing nearly £3m. a year, was made to municipal bus workers from November 10 last. Under it, platform staff received an extra I ls. a week, labourers 9s. 6d., and semiskilled workers 8s. 3d.
Manchester Transport Department's application for permission to pay its staff 2d. an hour more than the national minimum has been referred to the Industrial Court.
The National Joint Industrial Council for the road passenger transport industry, who have already authorized Glasgow, Coventry, Walsall and West Bromwich to pay higher local rates, could reach no decision bn Manchester's proposal.
Mr. F. Coyle, national secretary of the T.G.W.U.'s passenger transport group, will make a point of the council's decisions in these cases when he supports the proposal before the Court. A date for the hearing had not been fixed when The Commercial Motor closed for press.
HAULIERS IGNORE RATE RECOMMENDATION
I T was reported to a meeting of Dudley Sub-area of the Road Haulage Association, last week, that a number of hauliers had failed to adopt the Association's recommendation for an increase in haulage rates of at least
5 per cent. from April 16. It was thought unlikely that the operators would raise their charges unless pressure were brought to bear on them.
Mr: 1. Male said that in some cases rates for the haulage of solid fuel were so low that hauliers were obliged grossly to overload their vehicles to make a living. He thought that many vehicles exceeded the legal weight limits and that the operators were liable to prosecution.
At a meeting in London on Monday, the Association's bulk liquids functional group committee formally agreed to increase rates by 5 per cent.
WEEK-END SERVICES CUT
nUPLICATION of week-end bus
services on Tyneside and in North Durham is to be reduced by the Northern General Transport CO., Ltd., and Sunderland and District Omnibus Co., Ltd. The Northern Licensing Authority were told that pleasure travel had declined since 1951. Among the reasons given were the higher cost of living and television.