Extra 10s. 6d. and 42-hour
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Week for Company Busmen THE current series of claims for higher wages, shorter hours and better working conditions for busmen closed on Monday, when awards to some 100,000 company workers in the provinces were announced by the National Council for the Omnibus Industry. Increases in the basic rate amounting to 10s. 6d. per week have been made to drivers, conductors, semi-skilled and unskilled maintenance staffs. They will be effective from the beginning of the first full pay week following May 9. The introduction of a 42-hour working week, without loss of pay, for those staffs will operate from the beginning of August.
Basic weekly pay for skilled maintenance workers will be increased by £1 Is. lid, from May 9 .and operate on a standard 42-hour week from June I. A national rate for one-man operation has also been agreed. An extension of this type of working is now expected. The present arrangements for standing passengers will continue, it was announced.
As the claims of provincial workers were approaching a settlement, representatives of London Transport and London busmen were meeting in an attempt to avert a breakdown of London services. With summer schedules due to be posted in two days' time, the busmen stated that staff shortages would make them unworkable. They claimed that no further relief could be obtained by overtime working. It was stated that during the past four weeks 42,678 rest days had been worked by drivers and conductors. A shortage of 4,352 employees in Central London, with 800 leaving every month, was an all-time record. During the day what had originated as a demand for changes in schedules developed into a request for an inquiry into staff shortages, but it was agreed that the summer schedules would operate as planned.