Birmingham Asked to Leave J.I.C.
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IN consequence of a pay increase of
2d. an hour to bus crews, which is equivalent to an increase of about 8s. a week over the national scale, Birmingham Corporation have, in effect, been expelled from the Joint Industrial Council for the municipal passenger transport industry. The increase was made because of the transport department's difficulty in retaining staff.
Mr. E. R. L. Fitzpayne, general manager of Glasgow Transport Department and leader of the employers' panel on the J.1.C., has stated that the council met recently and asked Birmingham to withdraw. The real trouble, he suggested, was not so much wages as conditions of employment. Birmingham's action, he said, was causing difficulty to other municipal undertakings, particularly in the Midlands.
Bus workers employed at West Bromwich, who run into Birmingham sometimes over the same route as Birmingham's services, were upset by the wage increase, and other local authorities expected a similar embarrassment.
The Transport and General Workers' Union have applied for improved conditions in Glasgow, and their application has still to be considered by the transport committee.
Most transport managers, said Mr. Fitzpayne, realized that any increase in wages, or any substantial change in working conditions, could be met only by increased fares, and that was not likely to be popular with the travelling public.
Mr. J. F. Gregg, Birmingham town clerk, replied last week to a letter from the Federation of Municipal Transport Employers expelling the undertaking. He asked for certain points to be clarified.
NOT BUILT BY COUNCIL A CCORDING to Mr. R. A. Hawkins, general manager of Newport Transport Department, the six Daimler chassis reconditioned by the department have been equipped with all-metal bodies—five double-deck and one single-deck—by Messrs. E. J. Davies, Treforest Trading Estate. The bodies were not built by the corporation, as reported last week.
93 COLOURED WORKERS
SINCE the decision to recruit them was taken earlier this year, 93 coloured workers out of 200 interviewed have been engaged by Birmingham Transport Department. The undertaking had immediate vacancies for 461 men and women.
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