topic
Page 52
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Too many wage cooks
by janus
CIRCUMSTANCES ought to make it unnecessary for some time to come to have a compulsory wage structure for road haulage workers, The opportunity might have been taken to have a new look at the present system and to ask whether in any case it is the best that could be devised for the industry that is now taking shape as a result of the 1968 Transport Act.
With so high a level of unemployment in general, it may seem surprising that operators all over the country are complaining of a grave shortage of drivers. There are several reasons not difficult to guess. The reduction in the limits on drivers' hours is bound to mean that in some cases additional staff will be required to do the same amount of work as before.
There are other occupations which may be attracting drivers away with the lure of higher wages. Above all, the introduction of the heavy goods vehicle driving test has at one stroke deprived the industry of a good many drivers who were unable to meet the new requirements and slowed down the flow of qualified new entrants.
0 PERATORS who are taking the trouble to train their drivers are no better off than anybody else. There are reports from some quarters that no more than one or two out of every 10 drivers stay longer than a few weeks after they have been granted the new licence. They have no difficulty in finding a job elsewhere at higher pay, often with a trader on own-account, or another haulier who has not bothered to take advantage of the opportunity to provide training with the support of grants from the Road Transport Industry Training Board.
In the meantime, wage claims continue to mount undisturbed by appeals from the Government for restraint. It will not be long before the statutory minimum basic rate of £16 lOs comes into operation, but except in a few isolated and remote areas operators are already having to pay considerably more than the law demands.
All the same, the new minimum will take away from the trade unions the time-worn argument that drivers were being compelled to work for scandalously low rates of pay and that legal compulsion was the only remedy. It may be thought a pity that the role and functions of the Road Haulage Wages Council were not submitted for scrutiny by the recent Commission of Inquiry. Instead, it was asked by Mrs Barbara Castle to examine only the problem caused by the introduction of operators' licensing and the consequent cancellation of what used to be a convenient distinction between hauliers and own-account operators.
In consequence, the Wages Council machinery seems to have been made more elaborate than before. Its original purpose may not have been forgotten, but it can hardly be any longer in the forefront of operators' minds. The Wages Board (as it was first called) came into being because of the failure of the previous voluntary machinery. It was impossible to impose agreements without legal force on many thousands of small operators, whose drivers for the most part were not members of a trade union.
There is still in the minds of operators, and perhaps also of many of the drivers and of the unions, a vision of a completely voluntary wage structure which for all concerned would mark the coming-of-age of the road haulage industry. Negotiating machinery optimistically devised toward this end a few years ago hardly had the chance to get started, but the hope remains.
ITS fulfilment would be accompanied by the dissolution, possibly in progressive stages. of the present Wages Council. Against this background it hardly seemed the right moment to introduce complications by increasing the size of the Council, even if this was thought diplomatically astute as a means of introducing representatives from the Freight Transport Association.
Whatever operators on own-account may think, the definition reached by the Commission of Inquiry, and now incorporated in the regulations, was the only possible one. The principle which apparently could not—or at any rate was not—called into question was that wages for road haulage workers must be laid down by law, whereas the agreement of wages for drivers on own-account work could safely be left to be decided by other means.
There was only one way to fulfil this double aim. The Commission had to insist that any operator who decided to carry goods for hire or reward, to however limited an extent—that is to say, even if it was only one load every 12 months—would have to come under the control of the Road Haulage Wages Orders.
Not merely because it was the logical decision, it had the cordial approval of hauliers. Will it have whatever effect the legislators may desire—assuming that they have any idea what they want?
Any reputable own-account operator who decided to enter the road haulage field would as a matter of course make sure that he was observing all the legal requirements, including the need to comply with the Wages Orders. But such an operator would in any case hardly be likely to pay wages at less than the statutory minimum rates.
0 N the other hand, many of the small operators, and particularly newcomers who are seizing the opportunity that the operator's licence provides for starting in business, will either be unaware of their statutory obligations or will believe that they can safely ignore it. The wage inspector, with a large area to cover, will not have an easy task either to find these operators or subsequently to determine whether or not some of the work is being undertaken for hire or reward.
Most of the offenders would be oblivious of the advantages of belonging to one or other of the road transport associations. It would be of little interest or comfort to them to know that the FTA is now represented on the Wages Council.
When the new legislation was being considered, it might have been better to examine the Wages Council structure as a whole. One of the first things to notice would have been the surprisingly large size of the two panels, which have now had to be made even larger.
ALTHOUGH the deliberations of the Wages Council are confidential, it is reasonable to suppose either that the proceedings are protracted or that many of the members take little active part in them. There are now 24 representatives on each side. as well as the three independent members. There must often be a waste of time when 50 people or more are' endeavouring to reach a decision.
In the past the work has often been carried out expeditiously. The representation of the employers has come almost exclusively from the RHA. It has been possible for the national committees of that body to agree, at least in broad lines, on the direction that they would like the employers' side to follow.
In spite of this, there have been occasions when meetings of the Wages Council have lasted a long time. They could be,prolonged further at least it is hardly likely that They will be shortened—by the addition of representatives from another association.
There are historical reasons for having a large membership. In the early days there were area wages boards. When these were replaced by a single central council, it was accepted that there should be adequate representation from different parts of the country. This may have been all the more necessary in that at the time there were no less than four separate grades of wages.
It would certainly be wrong to appoint a disproportionate number of members from a single area. On the other hand, there no longer seems to be a need for a complete geographical spread. Once this has been accepted, the size of the Wages Council could very well be reduced without the individual operator feeling that he has not even an indirect voice in the decisions.