Minister Defends LTB Pay Rise
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THE seven per cent pay rise for London Transport's 32,000 bus drivers and conductors was defended last week by the Minister of Transport. He had been asked by Mr. Peter Walker (Tory, Worcester) into which category of exceptions to the Government's incomes policy this increase came.
Mr. Fraser recalled that the White Paper on Prices and Incomes Policy said that where it was essential in the national interest to improve pay which had fallen seriously out of line, and to secure a change in the distribution of manpower (or prevent a change which would otherwise have taken place) an exceptional pay increase might be justified.
The information supplied to him by the London Transport Board indicated that these circumstances applied to the Board's bus undertakings when the recent settlement was negotiated.