Yorks Employers Criticize Central Board's Scheme
Page 44
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Strong Opposition to the Scheme Circulated for Consideration
THERE is considerable criticism, in employers' circles in Yorkshire, of the suggested scheme of wages and conditions for road-haulage workers, which the new Central Board has circulated for the consideration of the various Area Boards.
Strong opposition was expressed in a suggested resolution which was on the agenda for a meeting in Leeds, on Wednesday evening, of the council of the Federation of Yorkshire Road Transport Employers.
The matter was also down for consideration at a general meeting ot Federation members called for later the same evening in Leeds. The Federation was formed a few months ago—as previously reported in our columns—following the dissolution of the old Yorkshire Employers' Panel, the long fight of which against the scheme of the old National Joint Conciliation Board was one of the factors which led to the setting-up of the new Central Board and Area Boards under the Wages Act of 1938.
The Federation includes a considerRiO able number of larger employers who gave financial support to the old Yorkshire Employers' Panel—now displaced by the employers' panel of the new Yorkshire Area Board.
The suggested resolution tabled for consideration in Leeds on Wednesday made the point that the wages and general working conditions proposed by the new Central Board are the same as those formulated by the old National Joint Conciliation Board. It declared that they are impracticable and too onerous, and should, therefore, be rejected by the Yorkshire Area Board, and it emphatically expressed opposition to any scheme of wages and conditions in excess of those laid down in a memorandum which the Federation has' already submited to the new Yorkshire Employer& Panel.
The following points were also included in the suggested resolution :— Refusal to agree to any scheme of wages and working conditions, until it is satisfactorily proved to the Federation that it will be applicable to all A and B licence-holders, and that satisfactory machinery is set up strictly to enforce its provisions immediately the scheme receives statutory authority.
Previous failure to apply any scheme of wages and working conditions to owner-drivers and other small operators, impels refusal to accept any new scheme unless it he rigidly applied to all operators, and unless steps be taken to ensure that wages records are to be kept by owner-drivers and other small operators.
In view of the fact that owner-drivers and other small -operators constitute
• over 80 per cent. of A and B licenceholders in Yorkshire, definite steps must be taken to safeguard the position, as there is evidence of the prejudicial effect which activities of such operators have had upon the industry heretofore.