INSTANT PRODUCTIVITY
Page 66
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Fr 0 influence people without necessarily making friends might be
a fair description of the aims of the Prices and Incomes Board.
Its recommendations are taken into account and often accepted in spite of a feeling of resentment. Its approval is solicited but not always welcomed.
In its first report on road haulage rates the Board inserted among a good deal of criticism a word of commendation for the efforts which the employers and the unions were making to develop a new organization alongside the Road Haulage Wages Council. By the time that the final report was published the national negotiating machinery had been set up and the Board set out a number of points which in its opinion ought to be considered. Most of the points had been advocated, at any rate by the employers, for many years previously.
Perhaps the effect would have been better if the Board had criticised the new machinery. Both sides of the industry would have been united in a common determination to prove Mr. Aubrey Jones wrong. As it happens the negotiating committee has made little or no progress since the Board's final report appeared in April 1966. Meetings have become less frequent and there is an atmosphere of disillusionment.
CONTINUED FRUSTRATION
Under the heading of labour relations the annual report of the Road Haulage Association admits the continued frustration of the negotiating committee in its efforts to establish a revised wages structure with provision for increasing productivity. The reason given is the inability of the two sides of the committee to agree on the means for settling a number of disputes between members of the RHA and members or officials of the trade unions.
According to the report the basis of a new wage structure has been devised by a working party but detailed consideration has not been possible. The committee has not found time to consider education and training, of particular importance in view of the establishment of a training board for the industry. As a consequence the RHA has found it necessary to set up a separate committee to deal with these subjects.
In spite of drawbacks the prospects for the negotiating machinery need not be gloomy. Its very existence is the main factor in its favour. Preferably it should have been set up several years ago when there would have been more scope for it to cover the initial stages at its own deliberate and ponderous pace. Its misfortune is to have been born in jostling times with the Prices and Incomes Board jogging its elbow and demanding quick results.
Instant productivity is not the purpose of the negotiating committee. The RHA report instinctively and properly puts the wages problem first, although the two items cannot be considered in isolation. They are sides of the same coin.
FAMILIAR PICTURE
The picture is familiar to every industry. According to legend there is on one side management with no other wish than to get the most work for the least pay. The employees on the other hand seek to extract the greatest possible reward for the least amount of work.
If such people exist in the road haulage industry or any where else they are the exception rather than the rule. The great majority are more reasonable. The ordinary road operator is not inflexibly opposed to paying higher wages although he sees the advantages of greater productivity. The ordinary driver would support the principle of a good day's work for a good day's pay but would be less than human if he did not like to see his pay packet grow.
On this level there is not a great divergence between management and labour. Nor can any serious reproach be levelled against either side in the national interest. Nevertheless, difficulties inevitably arise with an attempt to blend the wishes of one side and the aspirations of the other into a scheme which is fair to both and to all the individuals concerned.
The unions are past masters in the manoeuvring which accompanies. the process. They are skilled at elevating an exception into a principle. They are equally skilled at putting the other side apparently in the wrong. They know the right moment to exert pressure. They are in no way. inhibited by the fact that negotiations are taking place in a friendly manner from launching an attack on the other side, perhaps at a trade union conference. This does not mean that when it came to the point either side would withdraw from the negotiating procedure. There has been more than one threat and this has been partly responsible for the considerable length of time between meetings. It is hard to suppose that the threats should be taken at their face value.
The hauliers are the more anxious to reach an agreement quickly. Without it full advantage cannot be taken of the many opportunities for . increasing productivity, including the higher speed limits, the motorways, recording devices and other new techniques. Problems caused by the shorter working week in industry generally, stricter legislation and the Government's prices and incomes policy cannot be solved without the co-operation of the drivers.
Time scales are different for the unions. They have become accustomed to playing off one section of the industry against another. Although they are in agreement with the need to increase productivity their basic purpose is naturally to obtain the best possibleierms for their members. They have no wish to sell their bargaining counters cheaply or in undue haste. At the back of their minds there may also be the hope of picking up extra members from among the very large number of drivers who do not belong to a union. There is even interunion rivalry to be taken into account.
RETARDING EFFECT
All these considerations, whether they are prominent or not, must have a retarding effect on the discussions between the two sides. This does not mean that any of them would lead one or other of the unions to walk out. Still less is it conceivable that one side or the other would break up the machinery because it is being ignored by a few individual employers or drivers.
The alternative would be a return to the old system under which the main means of contact between the two sides was the Wages Council. It was the inability of this body to deal adequately with the problems of the industry beyond a very narrow range which led to the setting up of the new machinery.
Janus