Statutory Wages—A New Factor
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ONE of the problems which is troubling the bona fide members of the road transport industry throughout the country is to devise some means for ensuring that all operators are paying wages according to the appropriate scales made obligatory under the Road Haulage Wages Act, 1938. Whatever may be the views of the individual as to the fairness of those scales of wages and the conditions of employment which were also brought into force by the Act, whatever may' be their opinions as to the proposals to revise those scales again, there is unanimity in expecting that all should pay alike, so that none has undue preference in respect of the amount he must spend on the wages of his employees.
• That condition does not yet prevail. It is well known that hundreds, probably thousands, of operators are not paying wages according to • R.H.4. Some of them state openly that they have no intention of complying with the Act ; many appear to be still ignorant of the fact that there are certain wage scales and that they are statutory. We ourselves, 10 months after the coming into force, of the Act in January of this year, are still daily in receipt of letters asking if these wage scales he compulsory, and for information as to the amounts that drivers should be paid. An equal number of letters comes to us from drivers, asking what wages they should receive.
There is really no excuse for ignorance. Information of the passing of the Act and of its coming into effect was made public, in all sorts of ways besides those which are afforded by our columns. Moreover, every operator concerned duly received copies of Regulations R.H.2 and R.H.4, in which his obligations were set out in detail, also the rates of wages which he must pay. Evasion of the Act is still, however, comparatively easy and, as we bave already stated, rife.
A new factor now exists, however, which will very likely cause a change of heart amongst those who are obstreperous, and recognition of the existence of the regulations amongst those who are still ignorant of them. Employers of labour are now being asked to complete returns of wages paid to their employees, so that the local Inspector of Taxes can assess the amounts which they must deduct from the wages of those employees on account of income tax. There is thus an inescapable means for ascertaining that the law in respect of wages is obtaining compliance, and we shall be surprised if there be not a considerable decrease in the extent of the evasion which is at present taking place.