40-hr. week for company busmen
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
MORE than 100,000 company busmen are
to have a 40-hour week from next April. An agreement on this was reached by the National Council for the Omnibus Industry when it met in London last week.
Negotiations on the shorter week have been going on for nearly a year—ever since a com mittee of inquiry into the company section of the industry recommended its introduction. It is estimated to cost the companies at least £5m. a year.
This brings the last section of the industry into line. The 77,000 municipal busmen started working the shorter week at the beginning of this year and the London busmen were granted theirs in 1964. At the same time the National Council agreed on a joint declaration on restrictive practices.
The agreement brings to a close the last round of bargaining which, starting with a pay rise awarded by the committee of inquiry, included schemes for sickness pay and for productivity payments. The next round of demands has already begun. with claims for another "substantial" increase in pay for both the company and the municipal men. Both sets of men are now waiting for the employers' reply to their claim.