Pay Rises Under Long-term Agreement Recommended for London Transport Busmen
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
THE long-awaited report of the Phelps Brown Committee of Inquiry into the pay and conditions of London busmen, published on Wednesday, is likely to have important repercussions well beyond London Transport. It is bound to influence future negotiations in the rest of the road passenger industry and beyond it in road haulage and on the railways.
Its most important recommendation is that the London Transport Board and the Transport and General Workers' Union should get together to negotiate a comprehensive long term agreement covering both improvements in pay and conditions and measures for increasing the efficiency of London's bus services.
Perhaps next in importance to the industry is a strong hint to the Government that the tax on fuel oil used by buses should be removed. The point is made only in passing as something to be raised for separate consideration; but it is certain to be taken up again. The committee recognizes that, like all other taxes, the awl oil tax has its advantages as well as disadvantages, and has to be considered in its place in the structure of public finance as a whole. It adds: "But we would point out that when the maintenance of bus services in towns has been accepted as an essential part of public policy to meet a growing threat of congestion, a tax that adds so much to the cost of those services becomes increasingly anomalous ".
The long-term agreement which the committee envisages would give London's 34,000 drivers and conductors a rise in their rostered earnings of between 25s. and 56s. a week. The committee does not name a figure, but considers that between the £16 15s. a week for a Central London bus driver suggested by London Transport and the £17 16s. proposed by the union there did not seem to be an " unbridgeable " gap of what might be a competitive pay level to attract and keep the staff required for an adequate service.
Besides higher earnings the committee suggests the introduction of a 40-hour week to be achieved "by degrees ", with the hours actually on duty more nearly equal to the scheduled hours through greater flexibility in duty rosters. There should also be an extension of paid holidays beyond two weeks—confined to employees with five or more years' service—and a greater proportion of the holidays given during the summer months. Lastly, the committee hopes the Board will introduce improved sick pay and pension schemes.
In return, and as part and parcel of the agreement, there should be ways of raising efficiency. The committee favours a bonus incentive scheme based on takings and organized on a garage-bygarage basis. This bonus would form part of the higher earnings. So would improved safety allowances and special payments for working larger buses, oneman-operated vehicles and " standee " buses. The committee also thinks that the carrying of a limited number of standing passengers at all times and not merely at peak hours might also be considered. Summing up the agreement, the committee considers that it should be comprehensive and explicit.
Turning to the cost of such a scheme, the committee reckons that the interim pay rise last December—together with the further improvements now proposed and with a first instalment of 10s. a week "efficiency payment "—would be about £5,400,000. The employment of 2,500 additional staff at a further 15s. a week "efficiency payment" would add another £3,500,000 to costs in the longer run but this should be more than offset by associated economies and increases in revenue. The upshot would be a reduction of net revenue of about £4,500,000.
Taking also into account the recent pay rises to Underground and other workers and last month's raising of the 3d. fare to 4d., the committee reckons that London Transport will fall short by some £4,750,000 of their target of earning a surplus of £4,000,000. (This shortfall, by a strange coincidence, is practically identical with the amount paid by London Transport in fuel tax.)
On past form this would mean increasing fares by significantly more than 5 per cent to offset the loss of more passengers. But the committee feelsthat with a more efficient service, aided by traffic management measures which lessen the attraction of private cars, may make only a lower rise in fares necessary.
In so far as some fares increase was unavoidable it had to be regarded as the price to be paid for an adequate service, states the committee.
"We believe that the public will understand and not object to a rise in fares in so far as that it is indispensably necessary to provide a better service."
The committee goes out of its way to defend a rise in income well beyond the 31 per cent "guiding light The committee concludes by saying that the future of the London bus service now rests in the hands of the Board and the unions. It was of the utmost importance for both to meet the many difficulties that faced them with a readiness to examine and experiment with new methods and to adopt them. "The evidence has convinced us that there are real potentialities here. The task cannot be postponed if London is to have the better transport it urgently needs."
IN BRIEF
Extensive Bus Alterations in Essex: The Eastern National Omnibus Co. Ltd. is to introduce extensive service alterations throughout Essex from April 19, and many of the joint services with Southend Corporation will be reshaped at the same time. The revisions will include better services to Basildon, and a pruning of the more unremunerative services in North Essex taken over from Moore Bros. last year. Smoking Ban Condemned : Manchester's complete ban on smoking in buses has already been condemned by two of the city's depots and more are expected to follow. Last week 250 men from the Northenden depot passed a resolution objecting to the ban, which will be discussed on April 23 by the Manchester central busmen's committee of the T.G.W.U.