Coventry Big Pay Rise?
Page 35
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
C°VENTRY CORPORATION has ()tiered it busmen a new pay deal which will increase basic wages for a normal 42-hour week by up to 23 per cent and make them £1,000-a-year men. The offer is linked to proposals for increasing efficiency and its aim is to overcome staff shortages and eliminate overtime, writes our Industrial Correspondent.
The proposals. which have yet to be accepted, are hound to cause trouble with the other employers on the National Joint Council for the .Road Passenger Transport Industry, and is certain to lead to a new wave of demands from provincial busmen.
But Coventry transport committee, which is Labour controlled, argues that the really substantial increase is the only way to attract labour to its buses in one of the most prosperous areas of the country. 1A:here earnings are high and labour scarce.
Under the proposals a bus driver, after 12 months' service, would •receive £18 Os. 6d. for a 42-hour, five-day week from Monday to Friday-an increase of 64s. 3d. or 22-3 per cent over the present rate. For a week including a Sunday the new rate would be L19 16s. 3d.--an increase of 75s. ld., or 23-4 per cent, and for a week including. a Saturday and Sunday turn the rate would be f.:20 I4s. Id.-an .increase of 68s. 4d., or 19.5 per cent. Conductors would in each case receive 10s. 6d. ..a. week, less. When the 40-hour week becomes operative shortly, hourly rates will be adjusted to maintain the weekly scale. The new scale's would produce an average weekly wage of +:19 19s. 4c1. exclusive of overtime or sprcadover payments.
If the proposals are accepted Coventry busmen will be 1.2 10s. a week better off than a central bus driver in London. It will he the first time since 'the days of the horse-drawn bus that higher rates will have been paid in the provinces than its London. The difference will become even greater when spreadover duties are taken into account.
It is understood that if the National Joint Council objects to the proposals Coventry is prepared to leave the council and go' ahead on its own. Birmingham Corporation faced a similar problem and was expelled from the Council.