Ministry Now Involved in Both Company and Municipal Pay Talks
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
UNION leaders of 100,000 company busmen were due at the Ministry of Labour today (Friday) to seek help in their pay dispute with the employers. They had been invited to see Mr. Tom Claro, the Ministry's chief conciliation officer, to discuss with him the deadlock which has arisen in their negotiations.
Today's meeting was fixed to take place 48 hours after the start of arbitration. hearings in a parallel pay claim by 70,000 municipal bus crews. The three arbitrators, who on Wednesday began hearing evidence in private at the Ministry of Labour in St. James's Square, were appointed by the Minister, Mr. Ray Gunter, after a request by the two sides of the National Joint Industrial Council for the Road Passenger Transport Industry "to determine the claim by the trade union side for a substantial increase. in the rates of pay of operating and depot maintenance staff employed in municipal road passenger transport undertakings ".
The company busmen's leaders asked
for Ministry assistance after talks with the employers broke down (as briefly reported last week). They had turned down an offer of 8s. 6d. a week." in full satisfaction" of a number of claims which included a substantial pay rise, a 40-hour week, an incentive bonus scheme based on passenger traffic receipts and/or carrying capacity of the bus and a sick pay scheme.
If, as expected, usual procedure is followed, today's meeting with union representatives will lead to a call to the employers to go to the Ministry to present their side of the case. Should the Ministry " peacemakers " decide that no useful purpose is to. be served by calling the two sides together for another round of joint talks there are two possibilities open. The claim could be referred to some form of arbitration, possibly even to the same three men who are already looking into the very similar problems of the municipal busmen. Or it might be decided to await the outcome of the municipal inquiry before resuming talks.
The danger of waiting is that bus crews in many parts of the country are getting incensed at the long delay in reaching a settlement, as shown by the outbreaks of sporadic unofficial action. In their impatience they have the backing of the national passenger group committee of the T.G.W.U. They recently passed unanimously a resolution expressing great concern at the attitude of the private company employers towards the union's present wage application and pledging "every support" for any union action to bring about a speedy conclusion.
One of the main sufferers in the company busmen's dispute has been Midland Red, which has endured a series of Saturday strikes by many of the company's garages. Last Saturday was the worst day so far, with 24 garages not working, out of the company's total of 34.
Berry's Take Over Bowerman's : The licences of the Taunton (Somerset) firm of Bowerman's Coaches have been acquired by Berry's Luxury Coaches, which operate from Taunton and Bradford-on-Tone, near Wellington. Berry's, who have been running local services since 1920, will operate the same tours and services which Bowerman's supplied. Bowerman's will continue to operate as
general travel agents.