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LTB, Municipal and Company Pay Claims
Page 45
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
NEW pay claims are on the way for more than 200,000 workers in the three sections of Britain's road passenger industry— London Transport, municipal undertakings and company buses.
First in the queue are the London busmen. Their central bus committee decided last week that they should go forward with a claim for a "substantial" pay rise, for improvements in the system of bonus payments and for a third week's holiday. Although no specific figure is mentioned in the pay claim, it is understood that the committee had in mind a rise of about £2 a week.
Though the central bus committee has no authority to formulate a claim, its members form a majority of the full negotiating committee which will next discuss the matter. Finally it will go to a delegate conference of men from all the London Transport bus garages. It would be surprising if the claim finally agreed differs substantially from the central bus committee's.
On the provincial side, leaders of both the municipal and the company men are due to meet in London next week to formulate their claim. The decision to put in a claim was reached in principle as long ago as last October. It was then agreed to leave it to union officials to submit "at an appropriate time-.
With the settlement of the outstanding claims for a 40-hour week and bonus payments, as well as a sick pay scheme for the company men, the time is now considered to be appropriate. The claim is likely to take the form of a demand for a "substantial" rise. It will be put to the National Council for the Omnibus Industry on January 31 and to the National Joint Industrial Council for Road Passenger Transport a few days later.
In the case of the company busmen they had their last straight pay rise in May last year, when following a recommendation of a committee of inquiry they were awarded an extra 158 a week. Municipal busmen had a similar rise a little earlier.
The new claims will worsen yet further the financial position of all the bus undertakings. In London in particular, where new fares increases come into operation on Sunday (January 16), the prospect of higher pay is likely to mean yet a further instal
ment of higher fares later in the year. However, under the terms of the Phelps Brown committee report, pay is due to be reviewed in March in the light of other wage movements in the South East.
Meanwhile there is still the more immediate threat to LTB services through a full-scale ban on overtime and rest day working, due to start on Sunday week. Talks aimed at averting the action failed last week, but further attempts will be made before the deadline. Union leaders asked London Transport, as a peace gesture, to cancel the cuts in services which they propose to introduce on that day and the Board promised to consider this.