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Records Concession; Worry Lords

3rd August 1962, Page 30
3rd August 1962
Page 30
Page 30, 3rd August 1962 — Records Concession; Worry Lords
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Keywords : Trade Union, Labor

From our Parliamentary Correspondem

rONCERN about the possible effect on drivers of the records concession proposed in the Road Traffic Bill wer expressed when the Lords considered th Commons amendments to the measure a Tuesday, A report of the final stages ii the lower House is on page 937.

The change in the law allowing defence to an employer who could prov that he used " all due diligence" to se that records were kept was accepted b the Opposition " with Some reluctance, said Lord Shepherd. He found it haro to believe that an employer would hay difficulty in keeping records, becaus drivers were paid by the hour. If th payroll showed a driver had been exceed ing the proper hours he would hayo thought that was sufficient warning to th. employer.

For the Government, Lord Hailshan admitted that in the highly competitiv road transport industry there was constant temptation on employers to persuade their drivers to disregard th law about hours of work, or even ii extreme cases direct them to do so.

Therefore it was not at all unreason able that the trade unions should attacl a good deal of importance to the obliga tion of the employer to see that record were properly kept. But it was quit' clear that there were limits to what an: employer could do to ensure that driver kept proper records or drove prope hours.

Opposition Peers were also very ouneas about the new clause relaxing the dut on C-licence holders to keep records. sail Lord Stonharn. It seemed to leave th way open to quite a degree of exploita tion. He. asked what kind of reliabl evidence would be available to th, Minister when deciding, at the end of th, two-year experimental period, whethe the concession should continue or not

Lord Chesham, Joint Parliamentar Secretary to the Ministry of Transport said it went without saying that thee must be evidence upon which to base an; decision about the future. This woul( be available in the form of acciden records, and representations which wool( no doubt be made. The unions wen uneasy, he conceded, but if the Govern ment thought any great harm would b, caused to the principle of the number o hours that could be worked, they wouli not want any of it.

Tags

Organisations: Ministry of Transport
People: Hailshan

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