Insurance For All
Page 55
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WFIAT will ultimately : be the most significant point about the pensions scheme for workers now recommended by the Road Haulage Association is the number of members Who make use of it. There are probably something over 100,000 employees who could he affected, and if they were all covered, the employers' contributions each year would run into seven figures.
The likelihood of a good response to the scheme partly depends upon how attractive it is.,. Undoubtedly, there are numerous hauliers in favourof the principle of pensions. Many.of them have already made individual arrangements, but most•have been hindered by the fact that schemes submitted to them are not usually suitable for their purpose, probably because they employ so few people.
The new scheme groups operators together, and is thus able to provide standard conditions for them all. It maY be to the credit of the R.H.A. committee who have been considering the matter that the insurance company are apparently prepared to make certain special features available even if the response to the scheme is poor. A note describing these special features makes plain that they are. provided in the expectation " that the scheme will be generally adopted," and the insurance company may well feel they are running some risk if there are less than, say, 1,000 employees taking part Apart from a stipulation that an employee shall be actively at work on the date of adoption of the scheme, no test of health is required. If he leaves to take another job, he gets back what he has paid, and the haulier receives 90 per cent, of his own contributions towards the pension. There are variations on this theme where, for example, the employee is dismissed for no fault of his own. Civilian war risks are covered without extra premium.
Death Benefit The basic pension is /3 per annum for each year of
future service, and the employer may arrange at the same time, if he so wishes, for an extra it per annum in respect of each year of past service. The normal pensionable age is 65, and if the employee dies before reaching this age there is a death benefit of £300. plus the return of the whole of his contributions.
The employee pays a flat rate of 3s. a week. The
employer's contribution varies, mainly in accordance with the age of the worker. For a man entering the scheme at the age of 35, after 10 years' service, the employer would pay 4s. 2d. a week, plus 7d. for the death benefit. If he decides to reward past service, he would pay an extra 10d., making a total of 5s. 7d. At the age of 65, the employee would receive a pension of £100 per annum, including flO for past service.
The benefits seem as good as, if not better than, anything that can be obtained elsewhere. There is every reason why they should be. It is understood that the
committee gave consideration to over 30 schemes, and picked what they considered the bast.
One would like to see the scheme a success if only because it represents an attempt by hauliers to furnish their small operating units with the advantages, amenities and social awareness of .the large-scale under
taking. A similar attempt may be noted in the newly launched advertising campaign with the avowed purpose of increasing the prestige of the independent road haulage industry.
The large organization finds the need to interpret itself to the people within who keep it going, and to the large , section of the outside public with which it comes into contact. The welfare department, the public relations section, the house magazine, the staff canteen and the education scheme are all products of this need.
Special Techniques Once they are set up, and if they succeed, they are recognized as good things in themselves. The small business man has not the same. need for special techniques to keep in touch with his staff and his customers. His service is personal, his authority manto-man. But he can appreciate that many of the devices used by the large concern to replace the personal touch can also be used by the small man to strengthen it. The sense of community built up among the staff of a large business by pensions schemes or sports facilities has as its counterpart in the small organization a heightened feeling among the workers that the employer is anxious to do what he can for them.
The small man cannot usually provide out of his own unaided resources facilities on the scale made possible in a large business. Even a suitable pension scheme is not easy to find. But a number of small men can often overcome their difficulties by acting as a group. This, in effect, Li what is happening with the R.H.A. pensions scheme, and with the arrangements for Press advertising.
There is probably only one road haulage business, namely, British Road Services, so large that it presents any real problem of communication and chain of command. The Government's new policy on disposal ensures that the problem will remain. It is ironical that B.R.S. have so far failed to proddee a pensions scheme. Independent smaller operators have taken the lead.
The task of preparing the pensions scheme was comparatively straightforward. Much of the work had already been done. There were scores of schemes in existence, and it was necessary only to select the most likely and adapt it. On other welfare problems where progress can be made only by operators working together a good deal more may have to be done.
The present is a good time to give consideration to some of them. The Prime Minister, in the course of his address to the Conservative party conference, asked every company urgently to consider further measures • to promote joint consultation, profit-sharing and the , sense of partnership. These matters also might be considered by the R.H.A., even if some members suspect that the Prime Minister's eagerness to foster good industrial relations is partly responsible for the unwelcome decision to stop the sales of transport upits.
As with pensions, there are many hauliers who already, and without prompting, have introduced such devices as works committees, bonus and incentive schemes, and plans for the sharing of profits. They are pioneers, and may one suggest that some other hauliers
• think them the least bit eccentric? The extension of co-partnership between owners and men would be eased if the R.H.A. took up the matter.