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RHA to appoint trouble
Page 46
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•
S hooter •
from our industrial correspondent •• The Road Haulage Association is to appoint a full-time labour relations officer to sort out the problems of local productivity bargaining among its 18,000 member firms.
The officer will be based in London. But he will be available to travel to any of the 15 areas of the association.
His job will be to give advice and assistance to local hauliers in their negotiations on the £ 16-£ 17 for a 40-hour week claims being pressed by the unions.
The RHA has been concerned. that many firms are led into -shotgun" agreements which do not include genuine improvements in productivity. It wants to keep a closer watch on developments in firms up and down the country.
Its only means of checking has been through informal contact, often at area level. The labour relations committee at RHA's Euston headquarters is not geared to deal with the day-to-day issues which would be handled by the new official.
The decision to make an appointment reflects the employers' disappointment with the working of the national negotiating committee for the haulage industry.
It had been hoped that this committee would deal at the national level with problems of local bargains. But its meetings have been infrequent, owing to union disenchantment, • and have often got bogged down in wider national issues. • • • • • • • • a • • • • • • • • • The new impetus to local bargaining started in March when the road haulage wages council rejected a £1 a week national claim for all but the lowest paid and the unions decided to pursue claims company by company.
Since then many local deals have been negotiated giving at least £16 for a 40-hour week. But, as this week's Prices and Incomes report appears to show, these deals have often revealed the unequal strength of the TGWU bargainers and the inexperience of the firms in dealing with their own labour relations.