NEW TALKS ON BUS DISPUTE
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
DESPITE eleventh-hour efforts to prevent it, London was hit by a crippling ban on overtime and rest-day working on the part of its busmen this week. But new talks between London Transport and officials of the Transport and General Workers' Union raised hopes that the dispute would not be as long drawn out as last time.
The attempts to avert the dispute centred on the introduction of a five-day, 40-hour week. At present the men work 21 days in every 28-day period. London Transport proposed to cut this by one day by increasing the working day to 8 hours from the present 7 hours 38 minutes.
To improve working conditions further they also proposed that next year's holiday period should extend from May to September, instead of from March to October, on condition that the busmen accepted a 10 per cent cut in services.
These proposals were put to a five-hour delegate conference of the busmen on Sunday. But by 53 votes to 17 the delegates decided not to call off the ban. They did not reject outright the Board's offer, however, and instructed their negotiating committee to go back and get further details.