Yorkshire Employers' New Wage Offer
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-TUE employers' panel of the York .I. shire Area Conciliation Board has Made an amended offer with regard to wages, but agreement has not yet been reached with the employees' panel. The offer; which was made at a,meeting of the Area Board, in Leeds, on Monday, provides for the payment, throughout the Yorkshire Area, of Grade 2 wages, as laid down by the National Board, and under the National Board's conditions, this arrangement to be a permanent settlement.
When the offer was made, the employees' representatives asked for the deletion of the "permanent settlement" clause, bat the employers refused and the meeting was adjourned until April 24, in order that the employees' representatives might consult with their trade unions.
It was definitely indicated that if no settlement be reached at this adjourned meeting, the grading of the Yorkshire Area will be undertaken by the general purposes committee of the National Board, at a meeting in London on the following day. In the meantime it is
B34 proposed to consult Yorkshire operators at mass meetings to be held jointly under the auspices of the Yorkshire operators' associations, at Leeds, Sheffield and Hull.
The employers' amended offer was opposed at Monday's meeting of the Yorkshire Board by representatives of the Yorknire Stage Carriage Operators Association, who stated that, unless some suitable agreement soon be reached, the Y.S.C.O.A. will recommend its members to put into operation, on June 1, the Association's counter-proposals, which have already been published in full in The Commercial Motor.
The amended offer of the employers' panel represents a substantial concession on the previous offer, when negotiations on the Area Board broke down. The operators then suggested the payment of Grade 2 wages in parts of the area, chiefly in industrial districts in the West Riding and in Hull, and Grade 3 wages in other parts of 'the area. This was to be a permanent settlement, with the proviso that any
operator should have the right to apply to the Area Board for permission to pay lower wages.
This proviso was originally included in the employers' new offer, but it was deleted before the proposal was put before the employees' panel. Therefore, if a settlement were reached on the basis of the latest plan, it would no intended for all A and B-licence holders in the area. '
After the employers' amended offer had been put before the employees' panel at Monday's meeting, the employees' representatives declared that Grade 1 wages would have to apply in certain industrial towns by July 1, or at a later date. They suggested that there would be no danger of operators being called upon to pay Grade 1 wages without having had an opportunity of adjusting themselves to the new conditions.
Mr. J. Keeling, a representative of the Y.S.C.O.A., informed the employers' panel that the Association would be no party to the amended offer.