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MOTOR MAKERS AND LABOUR RESTRICTIONS.

9th December 1919
Page 18
Page 18, 9th December 1919 — MOTOR MAKERS AND LABOUR RESTRICTIONS.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

T IS FAR from being in consonance with ideas of

progress that, at a period when there is general

insistence upon the necessity of increased production, a Parliamentary measure should have been projected which, if carried into effect, must place a serious embargo upon industrial operations. Such, in effect, must be the inevitable consequence of the Minimum Rates of Wages Bill now under dscussion, and, whilst the matter is of general application to all industries, except coal-mining, agriculture, and maritime work, attention is being directed in Midland and other centres to its possible specially inimical effect upon motor manufacturing and allied trades.

The Nottingham Chamber of Commerce, which in Mr. A. R. Atken, M.P., and Mr. Robert Cripps possesses two members who have long been conspicuously identified with the motor world, has accomplished an eminently useful purpose in subjecting the measure to a rigid examination, through which the impracticable nature of its provisions is made apparent, whilst there is well-founded ground also for the suggestion that unnecessary harshness characterizes ,the spirit of the Bill. Ostensibly, there are safeguards in the interest of manufacturers, but, if ever a -scheme had been contemplated, to place a lever in the hands of a trade union autocracy, this may be regarded as affording the means. Objections, therefore, which have been cogently formulated by the Nottingham Chamber may serve as a basis of general protest in which the whole of the industry is concerned.

It is proposed by the Bill to fix minimum rates of wages for all persons of the age of 15 years and upwards, oblivious, apparently, of the confessed failure which has attended that attempt in regard to coalmining, the biggest of English industries, and to appoint -commissioners, consisting of a chairman and such other persons as may be thought fit, for the purpose of inquiring what such minimum rates shall be, regard being paid to the cost of living in the various districts, and any other matters which appear to the commissioners relevant.

It may possibly be found, under a system of perpetuation of political preferment which has been too rampant of late, that the chairmen so selected may possess no real expert knowledge of the technicalities to be dealt with, and, moreover, the prospect is opened up of a jerrymandering process under which the other persons to be chosen may represent hetero7, geneou.s elements of employerseand trade union interests, incapable of combination by reason of fundamentally antagonistic predilections. There is an amplification of doubtful value in the terms giving authority to the bodies which it is proposed to establish to inquire into and make recommendations as to the granting of exemptions from the rates so fixed in the case of infirm and incapable workers and in other exceptional cases, but, judging from their recent indications, trade unionists may be relied upon to see that this proviso is not allowed to have undue scope. It is clear, however, on general grounds, that if any confidence is to be engendered as to the equitableness of the work, it must have its foundation in faith in the oonstituent arrangements, and in this connection it is being claimed by Midland manufacturers and others who have had the matter under scrutiny that the Commission to be set up

030 must include an adequate representation of mama facturers and other employers of labour, and that representatives of all trades affected shall be heard 'before recommendations are made.

Something in the nature of a work of supererogation seems to be thereby entailed by the measure, for if industrial councils, on the lines of the Whitley recommendations, are to be trusted, the means already exist for dealing with complete problems in a way which may prove far more acceptable than if left to laboured disputations before Commissioners, of whom some may owe their appointment to well-known views of a pronounced type.

But the most objectionable clause in the naea.sure is that which might possibly sacrifice the interests of manufacturers to the demands of trade union hierarchies, it being proposed thereby that the Commissioners may, for the purpose of ascertaining what wages any particular trade or industry, or branch thereof, in any district is able to bear, appoint an accountant to examine registers, wagessheets, balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, and other trade accounts of persons engaged in the trade or industry, or branch thereof, in the district, it being made obligatory upon those having control to produce all such documents, -from which extracts may. be made. This proposal is being strongly condemned by Midland manufacturers and others as being altogether too inquisitorial in its nature, But the potential mischief to industry is not to be allowed to stop there. The vital point in the whole matter is the proposed fixing of a 48-hours week for all persons, with certain exceptions within the purview of which the motor trades do not fall. When the cry upon all sides is for increased production, it appears little short of ludicrous that such a proposal should be made. Whilst manufacturers in other eoantries are straining their utmost nerve to forge ahead, British producers are to have a heavy brake placed on the industrial wheel, to the entire dislocation of insular interests. The Nottingham Chamber is voicing the general opinion by its declaration that, in the present financial interest of the country, the time for such restrictions of'hours is most inopportune. The Bill under consideration proposes, further, to give the responsible minister power, where no order has been made, on application by an'organization of employers or workers, or by any person directly concerned, "or where it appears to him 'advisable," to make an order prescribing a higher or lower number of hours than 48.

Conceivably under such an arrangement bureaucratic wheels may be set in motion as a result of political or trade union seheming in particular districts, and in the interests therefore of that commercial expansion which all who have the best interests of the country at heart ardently desire, Midland manufacturers appear not unreasonable in demanding at this critical commercial juncture that the minister should only have power to increase the number of hours and that the words "or lower" should be deleted from the Bill. •

There are other clauses in the measure to which equally consistent objection has been taken. The-Bill savours of the viciousness of bureaucracy, which has proved the bane'of modern-day legislation.

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