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C-licensees Resent Wages Interference
Page 79
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ON Thursday and Friday of last week the Government committee of inquiry into wages and conditions in the road-transport industry continued to hear evidence from trade organizations.
A memorandum presented by the Traders Co-ordinating Committee stated that that body was composed of the great national trade organisations which represented the industries and commerce of the country.
The committee considered that fundamentally transport ought to be pro'vided to suit users, rather than to be regarded purely from the point of view of those who operated it.
No Competition With Hauliers.
Inasmuch," the memorandum continued, as the owner of the C-licence vehicle is not entitled to ply for hire or reward, the view that he is in com petition with the public carrier is not accepted. The users of transport, as represented by the Traders Co-ordinat ing Committee, wish to impress upon the (Government) Committee that no alteration should be made to the exist ing law as appearing in the Road and Rail Traffic Act of 1933, in relation to the private carrier."
The chairman (Sir James Baillie) suggested that the question of public_ safety, and public welfare, was bound up with the health and conditions of the drivers.
Mr. S. E. Cash, for the Traders Committee, replied that he was not quite sure that his organization was prepared to accept that wages and conditions were connected with public safety.
The Chairman : "You are not prepared to suggest any way by which we can secure good wages. You regard it as irrelevant? "
Mr. Cash : "We believe in adequate wages and conditions, but we do not agree that wages and conditions are necessarily hound up with public safety."
Newspaper Industry's Case.
Evidence was also given by Mr. E. W. Davies, general secretary of the Newspaper Society, who said that his industry had rather a special case to submit with regard to flexibility in its transport arrangementsThe wages were as good as, and in some cases, better, than those paid in the transport industry.
The London Chamber of Commerce, for which Mr. F. M. Carson and Mr. Frederick Smith appeared, stated that so far as wages and conditions of serNice of A and B drivers were concerned, the chamber felt that the negotiations should be left to the trading organizations, the members of which were principally concerned with supplying trans
port. The compulsory control of wages payable by C-licence holders was, today, as impracticable as it was when the 1933 Act was passed.
The chamber opposed any further statutory control of the drivers employed by its members, as carrying was only incidental to their business, and they did not consider they were engaged in the transport industry, as such. The chamber's summary of conclusions was as follows That the wages and conditions of service of drivers of C-licence vehicles, which were, under present conditions, arranged through the trade or industry to which the drivers were attached, should continue to be so arranged.
That as the right to collect and de liver goods was inherent in a trader's business, any interference with wages and conditions of ancillary users' employees would cause unwarranted hardships.
That, bearing in mind the exemption from control granted to the private carrier under the 1932 Act, the chamber maintained that there was no ground for alteration in the existing legislation.
The chairman asked whether the chamber would object to the broad principle of fair wages being applied in the case of C licences.
Mr. Smith: "No, but what we ask you to recommend is that fair wages should be fixed in relation to the trade or industry in which the men are employed."
The Chairman : "Would you admit that, in many cases, the C-licence driver is relatively underpaid?" • Mr. Carson : "I would not admit that at all."
Are Ancillary Users to Blame?
The Chairman : "We have information that wages are conspicuously low for certain drivers, partly because C-licence holders are outside fair-wages conditions. What I am suggesting is— would you consider it desirable that, subject to the wages being determined by reference to the requirements of the trade, those wages should be in some way regulated?"
Mr. Carson : "I should have no objection at all."
Mr. Smith said that he would be favourable to the statutory enforcement of an agreement determining a fair wage. Ile also suggested that the control and administration of licensing should be in the hands of the industry.
The Coal Merchants Federation of Great Britain, in a statement to the committee, claimed that coal merchants and dealers constituted by far the largest single section of B-licensees.
At present, as the Federation understood the position, -under the fair wages condition, the primary obligation on a coal merchant operating under a B licence was to observe wages and hours of employment not less favourable than those commonly recognized by local employers in the business and trade societies. This requirement did not prescribe the actual wages and hours, but rather the standard to be observed.
Wages System in Coal Trade.
Further, it defined that standard, not in terms of some arbitrary outside decision, but in terms of local practice in the trade concerned, which, in the case of coal merchants, would presumably be the coal trade, rather than the haulage industry. Such a system, therefore, provided an element of elasticity and self-government, essential in a seasonal trade, like the coal trade, which could not operate according to fixed hours and rates all the year round. The Federation saw -no need for altering that system.
The organization strongly recommended that it should be properly represented on any body, national or local, which, in future, might have any statutory power.
The Chairman: 'You suggest that, in considering methods of regulating wages for the road-haulage industry, it is not enough to take account of mere hauliers, hut the peculiar interests of licence holders. That is rather an interesting point. The point you have is that B-licence holders operate in a particular trade."
No General Agreement.
Mr. Errington Brewis, for the Federation, said that the men in the coal retail trade were not only drivers but deliverers of coal. The rates varied from district to district. Mr. Brewis, further questioned., said there was no general agreement.
A memorandum was also submitted by the National Farmers Union. This pointed out that the concession, given to the farmer under a C licence, of carrying goods for other farmers in the locality, was awarded deliberately by the Government -to assist the agricultural industry, and to meet one of its special problems.
In many agricultural areas, at the present time, there was a great dearth of A and B-licence vehicles, nor would it be financially worth while for hauliers to cater for the occasional or seasonal traffic in the district.
The committee adjourned until February 18.