YORKSHIRE EMPLOYERS - REAFFIRM PREVIOUS CONCILIATION OFFER TETE position with regard
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to wages and conditions in the Yorkshire Traffic Area, where negotiations bebetween the employers and employees' panels of the Yorkshire Area Joint Conciliation Board, have broken down, was again discussed at a meeting of the employers' panel in Leeds, on Monday. Mr. James France, a member' of the National Board, and president of the Commercial Motor Users Association, addressed the meeting. Evidently, his purpose was to clarify the position, with a view to assisting the achievement of a settlement in Yorkshire, but such a settlement does not appear to be any nearer.
Some indication of what took place at the meeting of the employers was given in speeches by Mr. Frank G. Bibbings, general secretary of the Yorkshire Stage Carriage Operators Association, and Mr. J. Keeling—both members of the Yorkshire Area Board—at a meeting of hauliers at Dewsbury, on Monday evening.
They revealed that, on Monday, the employers made no concessions on the terms which they proposed at the re cent meeting of the Board. Indeed, first, a resolution was proposed in favour of continuing the present arrangement, the payment of Grade 3 wages throughout the area, subject to the National Board's conditions, until July 1, when the position should be reviewed.
The employers eventually adopted an amendment in favour of reaffirming the previous offer to the employees —an immediate permanent settlement on the basis of Grade 2 wages in parts of the area, chiefly in the West Riding and in Hull, and Grade 3 wages in other parts, with the proviso that any operator should have the right to apply to the proper authority for permission to pay lower wages, by reason of special circumstances.
The amendment reaffirming the employers' previous offer was carried by only a small majority. Mr. Bibbings then intimated to Mr. A. H. Butterwick (chairman of the Board) that it was quite possible, in view of the decision, that the Y.S.C.O.A. would withdraw from the Board. It is understood that the reaffirmation of the employers' previous offer will be communicated to the National Conciliation Board.
Many questions which Mr. France answered at Monday's meeting of the employers were referred to by Mr. Keeling and Mr. Bibbings in their speeches at Dewsbury. Asked whether he would support a scheme alternative to the national report, if it were approved by 75 per cent, of the A and B-licence holders in the area, Mr. France was stated to have said he would consider evidence, but he could not say whether he would put it forward. Mr. Keeling mentioned that Mr. France had stated that the constitution of the appeals committee set up in connection with the National Board was to be changed, and that the committee was not functioning at present.