Hire or •Reward
Page 57
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WITHOUT making a natidnal survey,, it is difficult to decide how serious the labour situation is in -oad haulage. There are local difficulties, and there are individual -hauliers who cannot get as many drivers as they want, but this need not mean that the shortage is general. In fact, there seem to be plenty of drivers
looking for jobs. . .
Perhaps there are reasons why workers Prefer to stay in road .haulage., On the' face of . it-, one might expect lorry drivers to will over at a high rate into other employment. , Their statutory wages and their actual earnings' are less than they could earn in many factories for work that is certainly not more exacting. According to one school of rhetoric, some of them are badly used by their employers, and forced to work abnormally long hours at the risk of life and limb. ,
Other' providers of transport are in difficulty. Bus workers in London and the provinces, whether employed by the State, a municipality or private enterprise, have all asked for more money, and many.of them have left, with the .result that services have had to be curtailed. On some of the disputes agreement has been reached or Will probably be reached in a short time. This does not mean that the loss of manpower will be arrested, although it. mayslow clown. Nor are the workers who have left likely to return to their old jobs.
Staff troubles have afflicted the British Transport • Commission from thestart. British Railways are almost , . .
permanently faced with some complaint about low wages Of abciut differentials, and men are leaving despite efforts to .retain them. Freight trains have frequently had to be cancelled _because of a staff shortage.
Fortitude
In the circumstances, it is gratifying that the officials grappling with the intractable problem of railway staff remain so cheerful and persistwith their designs for better living.. Kr. Frank Gilbert, chief establishment and staff officer, 'British Railways central staff, recently
put forward a six-point plan. It was devised with particular reference to the railways, but is worthy of note by anybody concerned with the relations between employer and employed.
The plan called for: (I) the development of pride in the job and the industry; (2) better co-operation and more effort for _increased efficiency;: (3) greater understanding of the aims and purposes of joint consultation; (4) improved "communications"; (5) increased use of the suggestion, scheme drawn up by British Railways; and (6) *the creation of a new spirit of friendliness and comradeship between the trade unions.
One obvions item is missing from the list. Mr. Gilbert does not include the payment of higher wages, which some people might think ,would solve the majority of labour problems, at least for the moment. The omission is understandable. He can hardly be expected to enter into so controversial a field, ploughed up as it is already by the claims of the trade -Unions, the admonitions of the Chancellor of the'Exchequer, the long-drawn-out debate on the Budget and, firiallY, the dubious economic position
of the railways, • .
Mr. Gilbert. cOntents himself with the cautious belief that proper wages and salaries ought to be paid. He also points out -that in' the electrical supply industry increased output has recently been rewarded by higher wages. and that a similar development On the railways would involve a genuine wishfor improvement. and a willingness to give up outworn or restrictive customs.
A notable impression left by his survey is, the ,difficulty of convincing the railway workers of the virtues of what, to the outside observer, seems -an admirable plan. Concerning his first point,hespeaks of the unfortunate effect on staff of the Commission's frequent losses. He sets out the aims and objects of the British Railways Productivity Council and adds, a little doubtfully, that "it ought to be a resounding success."
Special steps. he says, have had to be taken to educate staff in the vital matter of joint consultation. On the \subject of 'communications," he expresses the personal view that the uniont could do more than they are doing to create a keener interest among their members in the work and future of 'British transport. The great railway modernization plan; " ought to be explained in such a way as to fire the imagination of the staff."-ThiS, he adds ruefully, has not really happened: Hopeful The suggestion scheme, Mr. Gilbert 's fifth point to be working reasonably well. He naturally. could not say the same of the trade-union situation. -.Although he did not feel called upon to .goat any lengthinto the thorny question of wages, he expressed the' hiape that the' present unhappy relationship would give place to a better understanding.
However bad the staff situation may, be in the railways, / it would be much worse but for the work of Mr. Gilbert and his department. This makes it all the more remarkable that labour troubles seem nothing like so acute in the road haulage industry, although establishment and. staff officers are few and far between. The mystery becomes clear when we examine the.six:point plan and inquire to what extent it would hold the centre of the road haulage stage.
Pride in their work is well-nigh invincible among a large number of road haulage workers. Without benefit of psychology, they seem to identify their own interests with those of their employer. Undoubtedly, a bonus scheme and other benefits that enlightened operators are now willing to give make the process of identification all the smoother, but from the beginning there exists the essential framework that Mr. Gilbert, one cannot help thinking, suspects is lacking in the Ivory Tower. •
Upon this framework most of the other points in his, plan can be built up without the elaborate machinery he described. The road haulage worker easily understands, the objects of joint consultation. "Communications " are largely a personal matter, depending upon the temperament of the employer. If he welcomes, suggestions, he generally finds that he receives as many as he can cope with.
The railways are struggling to b,uild up a relationship' with their staff such as already exists, in road haulage, or at least in a large part of it. .Perision schemes and other benefits that hauliers are now 'providing to a, greater extent than before are the ProduCt of a 'satisfactory relationship rather than an attempt to establish one. They are not so much hire as reward. The Commission might do well to consider the implications of this fact.