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Wages Anomalies
Page 87
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LAST week I suggested that the history of the wages procedure in the road haulage industry had produced a number of anomalies. Each successive Wages Order has added another piece to the structure without regard to the general effect. As a result, it becomes ever less likely that the differences between the various categories of wages accurately reflect the comparative value of the work.
The Official proposal on green paper, to be known as R.H. (57), will add to the confusion. When the colour changes to white—it might be more appropriate for the Wages Council to use the colours amber and green to mark the distinction—all overtime on Saturdays will be paid for at the rate of time-and-a-half.
At present the rate is time-and-a-quarter for the first six hours of overtime in the week, and thereafter timeand-a-half. In general, Sunday work is paid for at double time, but it has not previously been found appropriate to distinguish between overtime on Saturdays and on other days of the week.
In other industries as well as road transport, overtime payment has long lost any connection with its original purpose, which was presumably to discourage employers from keeping their men at work any longer than a certain number of hours in the day or week. Most drivers welcome overtime because of the extra revenue it brings, and there will nowte an extra inducement to work on Saturday rather than to take time off. Overtime payment is a lure for the workers rather than a penalty on the employer.
As a result of bargaining on the Wages Council, but for no other reason as far as can be seen, Saturday work has suddenly become 20 per cent more onerous. This applies, however, only where the work is classified as overtime. For the five-day worker all Saturday work is in this category, but for the six-day worker overtime begins only after the first four hours, for which he is paid at the basic weekly rate.
Time-and-a-fifth
He could with some justification feel aggrieved at the new proposals. If 20 per cent, extra is to be the reward for Saturday work, he may argue that he is just as much entitled to receive it in respect of the first four hours, payment for which would introduce a new fraction, time-and-a-fifth.
In fact, the problem is not as simple as that. Even at present, the worker who has accumulated at least six hours' overtime during the week, at time-and-aquarter, will receive time-and-a-half for work over and above six ,hours, including overtime on Saturday, so that the new concession will be of advantage only to some drivers, perhaps to comparatively few. Strictly speaking, therefore, the six-day worker would be able to claim his time-and-a-fifth for some or all of the first four hours on Saturday only when he had had less than six hours of overtime during the week.
A provision along these lines would provide some quiet fun for the legal draughtsmen, if not for the industry. Until hauliers became accustomed to the change—and it is surprising how well hauliers seem to keep pace with the growing complexities of the Wages Orders—there would be some difficult calculations to be made each week. On the whole, it is as well that the Wages Council have not given special consideration to the six-day worker's Saturday morning.
As it is, the employer will have some new sums to' do. Most hauliers, in making up their wages, rely upon 'either a home-made or a printed table which begins with the payment for the basic week of 44 hours, adds time-and-a-quarter up to 50 hours, and proceeds at time-and-a-half until the total is reached for, perhaps, 70 hours. Such a table will not completely meet the new situation. The driver with, say, three hours of overtime to his credit during the week will now at once move to time-and-a-half if he does additional work on Saturday.
The driver with a liking for the permutations and combinations on a football pool coupon may find it amusing to discover how he can get the most pay for the least number of hours. Many employers will likely find the situation so confusing that they will get into the habit of paying time-and-a-half for all overtime, which is, in effect, what the unions were demanding.
Making Ends Meet Whatever the ultimate result, it cannot be defended as a scientific method of determining the wages to be paid in the road haulage industry. The driver on overtime obviously earns his money,, but equally obviously the driver restricted to the 44-hour week is the man who finds it more difficult to manage on his pay. The weekly remuneration of a driver in a grade 1 area of a vehicle with a carrying capacity of between 1 ton and 5 tons is basically £7 10s. On the face of it, there would seem to be more reason for increasing this than for raising the overtime rate
Experience suggests that Saturday overtime at timeand-a-half, now that it is going forward as a proposal from the Wages Council, will almost certainly come into force. If, as I have suggested, it is an anomaly, it will find plenty of company among the other wages provisions.
The trade unions have not succeeded this time with their attempt to eliminate grade 2, but no doubt they will try again. What is difficult to understand is why for at least 12 years the differential between grades 1 and 2 has remained at 4s., whereas between grade 1 and the London area it has remained at 5s. In the early days increases in wages varied according to the grades, but what might have been a useful method of ensuring that increases went where they were most needed was abandoned after 1943, apart from a certain amount of up-grading, including the abolition of grade 3.
Another odd feature appeared in R.H. (56), when a new category was created for the drivers of vehicles with a carrying capacity of over 18 tons. The other categories rise by 4s. steps, but for some reason that I cannot find has ever been given, the topmost step is 5s.
If wage increases are ultimately granted when heavy goods vehicles are entitled to travel at 30 m.p.h., the Wages Orders will become even more out of step with the actual work done. If the,actual ability to pay higher wages diminishes as the country's economic difficulties grow, the case will be stronger than ever for a re-examination of the road haulage wages structure in order to find out whether the money available is being distributed in the best possible way,