Final Agreement on Municipal Bonus
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
BY 47 votes to 10, delegates representing snore than 72,000 municipal busmen gave final agreement in London last week to the 40-hr. week and bonus payment scheme, hammered out by the National Joint Industrial Council for the Road Passenger Industry. The 40-hr. week is to operate from the end of the year, but the bonus scheme was due to come into force from the beginning of this week.
Although a number of objections were raised to the penalty clause attached to the bonus scheme, under which a man who takes part in an unofficial strike can lose up to six months' bonus, union leaders were
pleasantly surprised that they were able to carry delegates with them by such a large majority. It is a new principle for a bus agreement and one which the London men certainly would have resisted. But the threat it contained was probably outweighed by a desire to get an early start for the scheme which will put from 10s. to 30s. a week more into a busman's pay packet.
The conference also agreed to proposals from the employers on the operation of large-capacity buses seating up to 90 passengers, the introduction progressively of standee buses and an extension of one-man buses.