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Committee of Inquiry to Probe Company Busmen's Problems

12th March 1965, Page 50
12th March 1965
Page 50
Page 50, 12th March 1965 — Committee of Inquiry to Probe Company Busmen's Problems
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

ACOMMITTEE of inquiry is to probe the pay and conditions of Britain's 100,000 company busmen. And with the decision to set it up the six unions in the industry lifted their threat to call an official strike of their members.

It took a full day of talks before agreement could be reached on the way out of the deadlock. It began with a brief get-together between employers and unions on the National Council for the Omnibus Industry under the neutral chairmanship of Mr. Tom Claro, the Ministry of Labour's chief conciliation officer. Mr. Claro had summoned both sides to meet him only three hours before • the unions were due to fix the date lot the strike to start.

There was little progress at this meeting and Mr. Claro continued his peacemaking with each side separately. The employers were willing to go to arbitration on any or all the points of the unions' claim and they soon left. But the unions were not prepared to accept arbitration.

Mr. Ray Gunter, the Minister of Labour, who had been kept closely in touch with the talks, then stepped in. He invited the unions to meet him and when he, too, failed to get their agreement to arbitration proposed a wider-ranging inquiry. But he insisted that if he was to set up a committee of inquir y the unions must first withdraw their strike threat and do their best to stop unofficial strikes.

Ministry Statement The unions withdrew to consider this and then returned to give Mr. Gunter the undertaking he wanted. Before the day was out, therefore, the Ministry was able to put out this statement: " The Minister of Labour, after the meetings which he and his officers have had with representatives of the employers and unions about the dispute in the companyowned bus industry, has decided to appoint an inquiry. Both sides have agreed to co-operate fully with the inquiry and the unions will take all possible action to ensure there is full normal working by employees of all companies. The composition and terms of reference of the committee will be-announced as soon as possible."

The happy outcome was confirmed soon afterwards by Mr. Sam Henderson, the national passenger group secretary of the TOW U, who led the union team at the talks.

Mr. Henderson made it clear that they would press the committee of inquiry to issue an interim report on the pay claim, which was top of their list of five points. Next in order of importance were the claims for a sick-pay scheme, a 40-hour week without loss of pay, an extra /2 holiday pay for skilled maintenance men and an incentive bonus scheme.

The employers' readiness to agree to an independent investigation of the claim was at least in part because of their conviction that it was "so huge as to be totally unrealistic ". They put its total cost at f15m., or 16 per cent on wages. A warning came from Mr. Walter Womar, general manager of the Potteries Motor Traction Co. Ltd., who, on the eve of the talks at the Ministry, said that granting the busmen's demands would mean that the bus companies would "price themselves out of business ". He said that fares would have to increase "astronomically" and services be cut seriously if the demands were met.


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