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Dock labour proposals incense hauliers

28th March 1975, Page 15
28th March 1975
Page 15
Page 15, 28th March 1975 — Dock labour proposals incense hauliers
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by CM reporter

PROPOSALS published last week by the Department of the Environment for extending the 29-year-old dock labour scheme have met with strong opposition from the RHA, FTA and from independent port managements such as FelixstoWe, Dover and Shoreham. Striking London dockers l3ave already attempted picketing those ports as well as Hull and Sheerness.

The Employment Secretary, Mr Michael Foot, had hoped that his new ideas, reflecting closely the views of the Transport and General Workers Union, would be well received by striking London dockers whose container depot picketing threatens to ruin the Port of London. But a mass meeting of dockers at Tilbury on Monday voted to continue the strike; the only ray of hope is that a further meet

ing was fixed for Wednesday.

The discussion document of the Employment Secretary suggests that all dockassociated container and similar work within five miles of any port should become the province of registered dockers. The National Dock Labour Board will name the depots to be included in the scheme, and in sensitive "frontier" areas the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service would proffer advice, with the Employment Secretary retaining a final say.

The other, highly controversial, proposal by Mr Foot is the extension of the dock labour scheme to all other significant ports where third-party traffic is handled, with the exception of British Rail ports, and a handful of others. Dockers at BR ports are members of the National Union of Railwaymen and this union would certainly not surrender members to the larger TGWU.

The Government's proposals have drawn on the 1969 Bristow Report which recommended a five-mile dockers' corridor surrounding a port. This was discarded by the then Transport Minister, Mrs Barbara Castle, as impracticable. The latest proposals appear to suggest that workers already employed in the depots concerned would he "invited" to become registered dockers.

Alternatively. dockers would he engaged as vacancies occu red.

The proposed scheme is unlikely to create many new jobs for dockers though it would increase the pool of registered men who could not be made redundant. Employers would face a heavy cost burden in retain

ing surplus employees and paying up to nine per cent of the wages bill in levies to the Labour Board.

The RHA's preliminary comment on the consultative document is that it contains no proposals that will improve the efficiency of British ports and docks. On the contrary, the liklehoodis that, by hiving off into the category of dock work normal road haulage activities such as groupage, the proposals will hamper the maintenance of full control over a road transport operation and extend labour disputes.

The FTA says it is fundamentally opposed to the proposals, which are the wrong way to tackle the problem of surplus dock workers, and could intensify present difficulties. The proposals would lead to increased costs, inefficiency and possibly more industrial disputes.


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