Another Provincial Claim on the Way
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT MEW claims for higher pay for provincial busmen are on the way— only weeks after receiving their last pay increase of 15s, a week. The first step. was taken last week when the national passenger committee of the Transport and General Workers' Union met in London. It passed a resolution calling for a narrowing of the differential in pay between provincial and London Transport busmen, together with improved fringe benefits and conditions.
Although the TGWU is the key union, further talks will have to be held with the other unions concerned before formal claims can be submitted to the two sets of employers, the municipal undertakings and the private companies. Apart from the fact that the last increases were awarded such a short time ago other issues are still outstanding from the last claim.
One of these is the question of introducing a 40-hour week by next April. The special sub-committee set up by the NC01 to Took into this question on behalf of the 110,000 company men was due to meet again today (Friday). Another sub-committee is still considering the position of skilled maintenance workers which was left unsettled when the. main agreement was reached. On the employers' side, representatives of 91 municipal transport authorities are to meet in London next week to consider a call for greater central control of local wage negotiations. This follows the circulation of a resolution to this effect by the executive of the Federation of Municipal Passenger Transport Employers. It notes with concern the number of applications, either approved or under consideration, for additional payments by way of bonus schemes or deviations, which tended to make national rates of pay and conditions virtually nonexistent.
The resolution was drawn up before the Coventry pay proposals (The Commercial Motor, last week), calling for increases of up to 23 per cent, were known. Other municipal undertakings, including Nottingham, Bolton and Sunderland, have also applied for permission to introduce local bonus schemes, worth up to an extra 12s. a week, to enable them to compete for staff with local industry.
If adopted it would leave the executive free to approve only such schemes as they "deemed reasonable" and to "take such steps as might be . necessary in the interests of members generally to maintain the position in this resolution ".