'Scarcity Pay' Offer to London Drivers
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
LONDON TRANSPORT made a surprise pay offer to its 16,000 bus drivers this week. Their leaders were hurriedly summoned to London Transport by telephone and there offered extra money for which they had not even asked. It amounted to 6s. a week extra for central London drivers and 5s. for country bus and coach drivers.
Reason for the surprise offer, worth £250.000 a year is the great scarcity of drivers and the extra payment is by way of a scarcity allowance. According to the latest figures London Transport is 2.089 drivers short in the central area alone, representing a shortage of 13.2 per cent. For conductors the position is somewhat better-1,160 or 7.4 per cent below establishment. In the country areas, the shortage is 250 drivers out of an establishment of 2.900.
The extra money, London Transport hopes, will halt the drift away, particularly in the central area. But the busmen are by no means certain to accept it. There will be objections that there is
nothing for conductors. Traditionally the busmen have opposed pay increases which extend the differential between drivers and conductors—at present 4s. a week. Under the new proposals this differential would go up to 10s. a week in the central area.
The men's leaders are to meet shortly and have promised to give their reply to London Transport as quickly as possible. One complication is that only two hours before last Monday's meeting the busmen delivered their own new claim for a seniority allowance of 5s. a week for each five years of service and for a third week's holiday.
London Transport believes that the extra revenue brought in by running services more nearly in line with schedules will mean that there will be no net additional cost to the Board and that there would have to be no increases in fares.
For a central bus driver on a basic rate of £12 6s. 6d. a week the offer represents a pay rise of about 21per cent.