The Quick and the Dead
Page 28
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DELEGATES to the annual conference of the Municipal Passenger Transport Association, this week, listened to some plain speaking by Mr. G. Beckett, general manager of Darwen Transport Department, on the subject of wage negotiations. He painted a picture of the National Joint Industrial Council for the Road Passenger Transport Industry as, a moribund body, evading difficult questions and neglecting its wider responsibilities.
He had some hard things to say about local officials of trade unions who closed their ears to the united voice of officers and members of the N.JI.C. and caused " unofficial " disturbances to transport services. He was equally critical of members of the employers' side who were guilty of "smart Alec side-tracking agreements" for the purpose of maintaining services. He probably had the example of Birmingham in mind.
Undertakings which are -desperately short of staff deserve sympathy, but, as Mr. G. A. Cherry, general manager of Birkenhead Transport Department, said in his presidential address, higher wages will not solve the problem. They will merely start a series of competitive increases as labour is diverted from other industries.
Departures from national agreements on wages also cause competition for labour among neighbouring transport undertakings and aggravate the position. There must be either national or local negotiation on wages. Municipal passenger transport operators have chosen the national method and, that being so, they must all faithfully abide by the agreements reached by their elected representatives. They are no less responsible in this matter than the workers.
Bonus schemes for which there is no justification provide a popular way of increasing wages outside the terms of the national agreement. Some of them are no more than bribes for employees to do the work for which they have already been paid at a mutually agreed scale. They introduce into public life the abhorrent system of backsheesh and should be eliminated by common consent. It is a pity that Mr. Beckett did not name the undertakings guilty of this defection.
The N.J.I.C. can never be stronger than the resolution of its members to honour its function. but, on the evidence of Mr. Beckett, it has left undone many things that it ought to have done. It has consistently refused to bring the model sick-pay scheme up to date, with the result that only 12 out of 89 undertakings observe it. This is an outstanding example of a governing body being led by the governed.
Mr. Beckett is to be congratulated on having had the courage publicly to expose the shortcomings of the N.J.I.C. Apparently many misgivings were expressed on the wisdom of the choice of the subject of the conference paper, but the result was admirable. The next move should come from the Council.