Working to Rule
Page 54
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pERHAPS the Conservatives and Socialists in Parliament have rather 'overdone their concern for the welfare and wages of the road transport worker," said Maggie's brother Cromwell, ." I see from the papers that there are threats of unofficial strikes for more money and lower speed limits."
"One curious point," I said, ". is that the threats come only a few days after the promise by the wages council of reasonably generous rises, none of them less than 7s. a week for adults, and in many casts as much as 16s."
"Bloggs is fed up with the whole thing," said Cromwell. "Any day now he is expected to announce his decision to start working to rule."
"For Bloggs to show such respect for the rules is really something out of the ordinary," I said.
"Now you are talking just like one of those nasty Conservatives that I have already mentioned," said Cromwell. "Bloggs has always been noted for his strict observance of the law, in so far as he is aware of it."
" He can hardly be expected to keep the regulations he knows nothing about," I agreed.
" Bloggs likes to keep the law in the sense that he hates to lose it, or to have it changed in any way," said Cromwell. "He is a conservative, provided that you are careful to spell it with a small c. He. says that the law should be left alone, and then he does not have to know what it is. He managed quite well by not knowing about the 25-mile limit 'on independent hauliers. Then they—the other type of Conservative, I mean— abolished the 25-mile limit, and 13loggs has not had a moment's peace since. He says he hears nothing else but talk of normal user, and of the day of judgment when special A licences fall due for renewal."
Deserves Sympathy Re deserves some sympathy," I said, especially as the things that are worrying him now seem to have nothing to do with the law. At least, they are not to be found on the statute book."
"Bloggs is even more annoyed about the raising of the speed limit for heavy goods vehicles," said Crom well. "While it remains at 20 m.p.h., it seems to cause little trouble either to the operators or to the drivers, who drive over the speed limit as a matter of habit."
"Perhaps their philosophy is that laws would be point
less if nobody broke them," I said. "Many of the drivers go even faster than 30 m.p.h."
"Which is exactly what is causing Bloggs concern," said Cromwell. "No sooner is there a promise that 20 will become 30, than everybody concerned begins to talk about a strict enforcement of the new law, with the possible result that lorries will travel more slowly after May I than they do now."
" You should have told this to the Pedestrians Association," I said.
" If I know 13loggs," said Cromwell, he is probably a member of that association, and supplied them with their best ammunition. Even before the speed limit is raised, he is fed up with the subject. The arguments seem endless about schedules, wages. road safety and what have you?"
"There have been arguments about such stibjects the past," I objected.
a20 • "But Bloggs did not find it necessary to listen to them," said Cromwell. "He found it possible to act as though the speed limit did not exist. He did not need to know about it."
"He seems to have been in good company," I said. "The wages council have spent several hours recently .haggling over the whole range of wage rates, apparently without mentioning the speed limit Once. A remarkable ichievement, I should have thought, like adapting' Lady Chatterley's Lover' for a parish magazine."
"If the wages council maintain that the speed limit. has nothing to do with wages," said Cromwell, " Biogg; woUld certainly agree. He believes in payment by results. There seems no reason why, after May 1, his drivers should not continue to do exactly the -sam.! amount of work as they are doing today. Therefore, he Nvill Pay them the same wages—which is probably a good deal more than they will get out of the wages council. After all, they cannot expect to be paid as much by law for keeping the law as they were beina paid for breaking it."
Complete Criminal •
"You make Bloggs sound a complete criminal," I said, "but again I • sympathize with him. If a man returns after two hours from a job that ought to take three, there seems little point in giving him an hour off because he has broken a regulation that nearly everybody regards as out of date."
"To some extent," said Cromwell, "Bloggs' condonation is an economic necessity. Good drivers are not all that plentiful, and most hauliers find they 'must pay., something extra for the right man. To justify the higher wage, they must give the man the appropriate amount of work."
" I should imagine," I said, "that Bloggs is scarcely in agreement with Mr. Gerald Nabarro, M.P., who advocates giving an extra pound a week to all longdistance drivers after May 1."
"Bloggs would say," said Cromwell, " that it is easy to advocate taking a pound from somebody else, as Shylock found, but not always so easy to do. Th.cre may not be the money coming in to pay for all the rises that are being suggested. The politicians in Parliament have a hard time of it, jumping from subject to subject, and Bloggs thinks Mr. Nabarro may have made the right speech in the wrong debate. The comment would have been just right had the subject been the railways. Extra money for them could easily be paid from the consolidated fund, thus putting the onus fairly and Squarely where it ought to be—on the taxpayer." '.
" Whereas the hauliers and the C-licence holders," f said, "will have to find the money themselves.".
"Exactly," said Cromwell, "which is why Bloggs has decided to work to rules He is Proposing to pay his drivers the statutory minimum, and see how they like that."
There are threats about working to rule from. the other side," I said. "The men are proposing to stick religiously to the legal limit of 20 m.p.h."
"That is monstrous," said Cromwell. "They would brim trade and industry to a standstill within a fortn t."