Yorkshire Conciliation Collapse
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MEGOTIATIONS between the emI 141 ployers' and employees' panels of the Yorkshire Area Joint Conciliation' Board collapsed at a meeting of the Board, in Leeds, on Tuesday. The breakdown arose on wages.
The joint secretaries are to report to the National Board. The employers' panel will meet early next week to conskier the situation. It is anticipated that, at this meeting, the Yorkshire Stage Carriage Operators Association Gll press for the approval of its counterproposals.. It is learned that whatever decision is taken by the employers' panel, the Y.S.C.O.A. will recommend its members to ptit -the counter-proposals into operation forthwith.
If any of its members be reported to the Licensing Authority for not observing the findings of the National Board, the Y.S.C.O.A. will be prepared to fight a test case on the issue as to whether its counter-proposals meet the requirements of the fair-wages clause in the Road Traffic Act, 1930.
Tuesday's meeting of the Yorkshire Board was a stormy one, but the breakdown did not come as a surprise, as, at its meeting in Leeds, last Friday, the negotiating sub-committee failed to reach agreement on wages.
The proposals of the employees' panel provided for the payment forthwith, and during the interim period, of Grade 2 wages in parts of the area, and Grade 3 wages in other districts. From July 1, the employees' panel proposed that Grade I wages should apply in the majority of towns where -the Grade 2 scale had operated during the interim period, and Grade 2 and 3 should apply in other parts.
The employers proposed a permanent settlement on the basis of Grade 2 wages, chiefly in the West Riding and Hull, and Grade 3 wages in other parts. They also proposed that any operator should have the right to apply to the proper authority for permission to pay wages lower than the scale for the district, by reason of special extenuating circumstances. The path of the National Joint Conciliation Board has been beset with more obstacles in Yorkshire than in any other. Traffic Area in the Country. In all other areas, an interim arrangement has been drawn up, whilst in certain regions a final agreement to operate from July 1 next has already been reaehed. Even in Scotland, differences have recently been settled.