"Statutory Assistance" for the Industry?
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Government Committee of Inquiry into Wages and Conditions Hears Evidence of National Joint Conciliation Board
THE committee appointed by the Ministers of Labour and Transport to examine and make recommendations with regard to the statutory regulation of wages and conditions of service in the road-transport industry (goods) met on Tuesday at the Ministry of Labour, to receive evidence from the National Joint Conciliation Board. Sir James Baillie (vicechancellor of Leeds University) was the chairman of the committee, which also included Sir Gerald Bellhouse (formerly chief inspector of factories) and Mr. John Forster (deputy umpire under the Unemployment Insurance Acts).
The spokesmen for the Board were Mr. W. Edwards (National Road Transport Employers Federation) and Mr. Ernest Bevin (Transport and General Workers Union).
80,000 Men Affected.
The Conciliation Board submitted a memorandum setting out its case in
great detail. This stated that the number of men who came within the category of Section 19 of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, leaving out workers employed by ancillary users, and owner-drivers, and limiting it to motormen, statutory attendants, etc., was approximately 80,000.
The members comprising the three national employers' organizations owned approximately 120,000 vehicles. The First Annual Reports of the Licensing Authorities showed that at September 30, 1935, there were 211,268 licence holders operating 459,626 vehicles.
Those who had wished to see selfgovernment in the industry, and the honouring of agreements, had, through the Association of Joint Industrial Councils, tried without success to obtain statutory force for voluntary agreements, their object being to get the industry placed on a stable footing.
" Statutory Assistance" Needed.
There was little prospect of observance of an agreement being effective without a period of statutory assistance being given to the industry. .
To expect the industry to develop a satisfactory system of collective bargaining, and to observe agreements without statutory assistance, was asking it to accomplish almost the impossible. The Board was convinced that if statutory assistance were given for a sufficient period it could ultimately arrive at a state of control within itself, comparable with that of the older and more stabilized industries. Not only was there competition within the business itself, but there was competition with other forms of transport, and this had led to a demand for co-operation.
It was an urgent public necessity that the industry should be assisted to function on an orderly and stable basis. If peace were to be preserved B30 within it, regard must be paid to the many problems that this section of transport had to face. The effective operation, with power behind it, of a National Joint Conciliation Board, capable of grappling with the matters that must inevitably arise in connection with labour, was a vital necessity.
Co-ordination could not be achieved without stabilization, and this presupposed the removal of uneconomic competition, necessitating the universal observance of an agreed standard of wages by all licence holders.
The Board made a number of recommendations. These included:— • The Minister of Labour should be given powers to enforce for a period of at least five years the decisions of the Board.
The obligation to observe fair wages and conditions, not less favourable than those laid down by the Board, should be imposed on the industry as a whole, including Cliaence holders.
The right to lay information before the Licensing Authorities as to the non-observance of wages and conditions should be retained. The matter should then be dealt with through the enforcement machinery of the Minister of Labour, which implied that, on the facts, the Minister should be empowered to bring the delinquent before a court of summary jurisdiction.
From the date of the operation of the Order, amounts of wages unpaid, or underpaid, or the value of conditions • unobserved, should be re coverable. In the event of a recorded conviction, such conviction should rank as an offence as provided in the Acts of 1930 and 1933.
Machinery of the National 'Board should be extended to include Scotland.
Mr. Ernest Bevin supplemented the Memorandum and replied to questions from the committee.
He said he was satisfied that there were good types of employer who wanted to do the right thing, and would have abided by the National Board's, and the Area Board's, agreements if they had only had statutory assistance, which would have brought competitors into line. He thought that the merchants had made a big contribution to the chaos of the industry.
Fear Prevents Organization.
The chairman asked what prevented the members of the industry from seeking to organize themselves, as in other industries.
Mr. Bevin : "Fear of one another, and character. The first thing that has to be dealt with is the cutting of wages and conditions.'
Answering further questions, Mr. Bevin said that the removal of uneconomic competition would not mean higher rates.
The chairman asked whether the scheme of the Board would allow any kind of variation in the wages, so as to allow competition to be carried on 'successfully.
Mr. Bevin: "Not in wages. I do not know any employers' organization that wants that. The thing that mali es for stability is that wages are the stable factor and anything above that depends on efficiency."
The chairman said that, suppose, by some alteration of the Act, they required all employers to belong to some organization, which could become a constituent member of the Joint Board, would not that be enough?
Association Membership Compulsory? Mr. Bevin said that if the employers were forced into an organization, it would mean also the men being forced into a union. This raised important points.
. The chairman replied that any kind of enforcement would raise questions of policy. The question was : were theygoing to introduce their enforcements so as to ensure a maximum of freedom of negotiation and autonomy as regards the whole industry?
Mr. Bevin : "I doubt whether you could work it" (referring to the chairman's suggestion). "There has always been a difficulty about throwing on Associations, on either side, what is the obvious duty of. the law."
The case for the National Board was completed. The committee adjourned until October 12, when evidence will be taken from the employers.