Busmen's pay negotiations bogged down
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Trmunicipal busmen's 9s. 3d. a week y rise will not yet be implemented by the local authorities, and the related union claim on behalf of 110,000 company busmen has also run aground.
On Monday, both sides involved with the company's claim agreed to refer back to a special committee outstanding questions of basic rates, abolition of restrictive practices, increased productivity and the more effective use of manpower.
Despite some fresh reports claiming that the special committee would meet within seven days, I am assured that this is not so. August is a difficult month to arrange meetings and the only meeting now scheduled between the NCOI and the unions (on August 12) relates to the sick-pay scheme.
The TGWU, I gather, resents headlines suggesting that the union has accepted, albeit reluctantly, the general wage freeze. But any change of thought in Downing Street on the application of the pay freeze seems remotely unlikely. J.D.