Tachos would disrupt trade'
Page 19
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1E GOVERNMENT beyes — and has told the — that if it were to pose the compulsory use the tachograph on domes: traffic it would provoke vere and serious industrial docation in many sectors the economy.
Stating this in the Lords st week, Government okesman Baroness Stedan added that it would obably involve unaccept ■ le wage demands without :cessarily resulting in any fsetting gains in producrity.
The Government did not ink it could accommodate at in its vital counterflationary measures being iforced at the moment. An earlier statement by Lady Stedman about "opposition among drivers" caused Viscount Trenchard to comment that it tended to confirm a feeling that the Government believed in an extension of the principle of non-applicability of the law to powerful trade unions.
Why did the Government continue to support such a policy, in view of the evidence of nearly all public opinion that this was not in accord with the wishes or the interests of the public, including trade union members?
Lady Stedman would not accept that the Government was encouraging people to go against or not to observe the law.
The Government had ensured that lorries taking loads into Europe were and had to be equipped with the tachograph, which they had to use. It was still a question of voluntary agreement in this country.
The Earl of Onslow suggested that this country was ratting on its Treaty obligations because Mr Law of the Transport and General Workers' Union in Birmingham said so.
Lady Stedman denied this and said that the Government had given a reasoned response to the Commission's argument as to why this country should go in for compulsion.