AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

London Agreement at Last

26th June 1964, Page 42
26th June 1964
Page 42
Page 42, 26th June 1964 — London Agreement at Last
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords :

FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT

AT long last the pay dispute between London Transport and their 32,000 busmen is over. A special delegate conference of the men decided on Wednesday to accept the Board's latest offer of pay rises averaging 11 18s. a week. But it took the delegates more than six hours of often bitter discussion before they accepted the advice of their national passenger group secretary, Mr. Sam Henderson. The decision was carried by a substantial majority.

The figures put to the men were the result of long and hard bargaining last week between the L.T.B. and union negotiators. London Transport made yet two more concessions and, after more than 10 hours, bad won over at least a majority of the busmen's negotiating committee.

The ground had to some extent been prepared before the meeting began by secret talks between Mr. Frank Cousins, general secretary of the T.G.W.U„ and Mr. Alex Valentine, chairman of the London Transport Board. So when the talks began London Transport offered their first concession. Under the previous offer there was to be a total increase of 35s. 6d. a week on average, 18s. of which was to be paid in the form of higher rostered earnings immediately agreement was reached, and the other 17s. 6d. to be paid three months later in the form of various incentive payments.

The Board's new proposal was that 10s. of the incentive payments should be paid at once, together with the increases in rostered earnings and that only the balance should be held up for three months.

This did not satisfy the busmen's negotiators. They for their part had entered the talks, determined to press for another 8s. a week, 5s. 6d. on rostered pay and 2s. 6d. on the incentives. Finally London Transport agreed to add 2s. 6d. to the various bonuses.

There were also some concessions to overcome the busmen's reluctance to see the introduction of large and variable differentials between bus crew and bus crew and between garage and garage. This would have been the effect of the original proposals to pay crews a seat

• bonus according to the number of passengers their bus was capable of carrying and paying a fares bonus on a garage basis according to the amount of receipts collected. It was agreed that the fares bonus should be shared out on a fleet basis. Central drivers and conductors will all get the same amount and Green Line crews will also share their fleet's total bonus. And on the seat payments. modifications are also to be worked out to narrow the differences at the extremes.

When the negotiating committee met to discuss what had been achieved, Mr. Sam Henderson, the union's national passenger group secretary, pressed strongly for acceptance. The advance of the 10s. payment by three months, he was able to point out, meant ao extra £6 10s. in the pocket of every driver and conductor.

His point of view prevailed, but not without opposition from a strong minority, who wanted to continue the fight.

The cost of the agreement is reckoned to be not far short of £4m. in a full year and this can only be recovered through higher bus and tube fares. Some of the money will no doubt eventually come back in the form of higher receipts and lower costs. But it will be quite some time before the more revolutionary proposals can be brought into effect.

P.V.O.A. Dinner.: The annual dinner-dance of the Passenger Vehicle Operators Association will be held this year art Monday. September 28, at the Connaught Rooms, London.


comments powered by Disqus