All Not Yet Well on Haulage Pay Front
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
ALTHOUGH the majority of British road haulage workers have had their claim approved and can look forward to higher pay and shorter hours from January 1 next, all is not yet well in the industry.
At talks on a similar claim for 24,000 men employed by the state-owned British Road Services negotiations broke down, although they were offered the same rise of 3 per cent, and a cut in the working week from 44 hours to 42.
The trouble arose over the date when the increases should take effect. The employers offered January 1, but the three unions concerned refused to accept this. They wanted the date to be November 13.
Now the unions are to consult their members , before deciding on the next step. It is difficult to see, however, what they can do. By the time negotiations are resumed it will be even nearer the employers' proposed starting date and any militant action over such a small difference would be hard to defend. Strictly speaking, the B.R.S. offer was a breach of the Government's wages pause policy, since the claim was not submitted until after the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Selwyn Lloyd, in the Commons imposing the pause.
But Mr. A. Whitfield, the B.R.S. personnel officer, explained atter the meeting: "If we had not made this offer, British Road Services would be paying their workers on a basis of rates and conditions less favourable than the statutory minima laid down and legally enforceable for road haulage workers covered by the Wages Council." • It would also, of course, have put B.R.S. in a more favourable commercial position in competition with private hauliers.