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OLD ROUTINE
Page 75
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ONE important point may not receive even a reference during the deliberations of the Road Haulage Wages Council next week, although it will be clearly in the minds of all the members. Ever since the speed limit for heavy goods vehicles was increased from 20 to 30 m.p.h., the trade unions have been engaged in individual negotiations with operators for rises in wages to compensate for the fact that some drivers are now permitted by law to travel faster than before. The efforts of the unions have had notable success with British Road Services, and there has been some progress with some individual firms.
In spite of this, the Wages Council have never been able to bring themselves to acknowledge officially that speed limits have anything to do with the contents of the road haulage wages orders. The unions appear to see more advantage in separate discussions than in a statutory agreement that, while no doubt desirable in itself, would eliminate the 30 m.p.h. speed limit as a weapon in future wage talks. The employers' side of the Council have also shown no eagerness to raise the subject and the independent members would have no reason to do so. The present proposal from the unions is for a reduction from 44 to 42 hours in the basic working week and for an all-round increase of 22s. per week in the basic scales. No reference is made to speed limits.
EFFORTS by the Council to reach a fair decision must be obscured by the knowledge that, as the result of the activities of one side in the discussions, many operators have conceded wages well above the existing scales and possibly even in excess of what the unions now propose. However well reasoned the debate next week, it is bound to take place in an atmosphere of unreality and an atmosphere that there is evidently no great desire to dispel. It is hardly made clearer by the equally well-known scarcity of good drivers, a problem endured by hauliers generally, including B.R.S.
The trader using his own vehicles is often prepared to pay higher wages than those hauliers who have to make a living out of their vehicles. Often he has no choice because of the scales of wages laid down in his own industry. Apart _ from this disparity in wages offered by various types of licence holder, there is the temptation for the driver to turn to another job that promises him more pay, with possibly better conditions and shorter hours.
The pattern of road haulage wages negotiations does not vary greatly. The trade unions and the employers put up proposals and counter-proposals. The three independent members may at first agree with neither side, but as the day goes on the various arguments are marshalled, they let it be known at what point they would be prepared to make a positive decision and it is usually at somewhere around this point that the discussions end.
For the independent members there must be considerable sympathy. They are dealing with a wage structure that no longer applies to a fairly wide section of the industry and is constantly being eroded by the need to prevent the flight of the skilled driver to other occupations. These factors seem to call, for an increase in the scales to bring them into line with practice, and a refusal by the Council to recommend an increase of any kind might appear reactionary. Nevertheless, the independent members must suspect with some justification that any increase will almost automatically be added to the extra payments made by a large number of employers, so that the gap between statutory rates and practice will remain as wide as ever.
To pile on the agony, the Council must be aware that most of the other arguments are against any increase at all. Only a small rise in wages is needed before hauliers will be compelled to put up their rates. Since the last rates increase there has been a general tendency for costs to go up and hauliers have found some of the items measurable. The revised national insurance and state pension scheme has been a general burden, as has been the fairly widespread increase in rates payable on premises. More particular additions to road transport costs have been the rise in vehicle insurance, the 2d. a gallon tax on lubricating oil in this year's Budget, and notably the increase by about 20 per cent. in vehicle licence duties introduced at the same time.
THERE might be a case to argue that these items in the aggregate justify putting something on road haulage rates. There is at present little disposition among hauliers to press the matter, but they will have no alternative if there is another substantial cost increase. The Wages Council must know that their decision to propose higher wages will make transport more costly, to the trader with his own vehicles as well as to the haulier. The effect will be felt throughout industry and the wages increase may itself stimulate demands from other workers.
The Council may feel that they, are not called upon to solve the whole of the country's economic problem; that it is hard enough to grapple with their own. There are indications that the Government may have to take action at some stage to stop the ever-increasing round of wage increases.
If industrial costs are damaging the national economy, they are having an even more harmful effect on the export prospects.
Sombre information that the Council ought at least to bear in mind is to be found in the annual report of the Bank of International Settlements. It points out what is, already well known, that the volume of exports from the United Kingdom has in recent years increased at a much less rapid rate than exports from other European countries. The reason may be largely that export prices in the U.K. rose by 10 per cent, between 1953 and 1960, whereas in Switzerland, for example, they fell by 4 per cent, during this period.
THE report has this comment to make: "The key factor in the unfavourable comparative showing of U.K. exports has been the almost continuous tendency of wage increases to exceed productivity gains, with the consequent increases in costs and prices. This was the case by a wide margin in the years 1953 to 1957. In the recession year of 1958 earnings rose more modestly-by 21 per cent., but the steep rise was resumed in 1959. Between the second half of 1959 and the same period of 1960 average earnings per head increased by 51per cent, and once more exceeded productivity gains."
As the unions obviously realize, the time is propitious for another round of wage increases. The cost of living is rising and there is no lack of vacant jobs. The question remains whether the old routine, followed by the Road Haulage Wages Council and by other negotiating bodies, is likely to bring disaster before very lone.