Making the Grade
Page 41
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BY agreeing to describe wage differentials as "grading," the employers start at a disadvantage in negotiations which concern a change from one grade to another. To most people Grade 2 means something inferior in quality to Grade I; and Grade 3 is fit only for the cat. The_fact that the wages of freeenterprise road haulage workers are graded appears to mean not only that Grade 2,wages are less than those of Grade 1—which is true—but also that the Grade 2 workers are less efficient.
Nevertheless, the reason for grading is plain. It is cheaper to live in some parts of the country than in others. The original wages framework, set up as a result of the Road Haulage Wages Act, 1938, recognized four levels in the cost of living, one for London and one for each of three grades. The lowest level was abolished some time ago. In accordance with the latest wage scales, the worker in a Grade 1 area is paid, with certain exceptions, 4s. more for a basic 44-hour week than his opposite number in the second grade, hut 5s. less than the London worker.
Whether this corresponds with the actual difference in costs I should not like to say. The Wages Orders have grown so complicated that few questions about them admit of a simple answer. On the whole the rural areas are Grade 2 and the urban. areas Grade I, and such items as population and industrial development play a large part in determining the classification of any particular town. Many seaside resorts and charming market towns have so far failed to make the higher grade. Thus, Brighton is Grade 1 but Hastings is not, and there are higher statutory wages in Ipswich than in Colchester and Chelmsford.
Upward ,Standardization
The tendency.outside London has been to standardize wages by the progressive elimination of all grades except one. This invariably means bringing lower rates of pay up to the next highest level, and the most spectacular example sofar was the abolition of Grade 3 some time
ago. The process is in one direction only. Just as there is no prospect that Grade 3 will ever return, so it is safe to say that, once an individual town or district has been upgraded, it will remain in that state.
Grade 2 is now the object of the unions' attack, which may be piecemeal or along the whole front. The siege of one small town after another is tedious and slow. The unions would naturally prefer the abolition of Grade 2 at one stroke, or, failing that, the automatic. upgrading of all places that were Grade 2 when there was still a Grade 3. The employers on the Road Haulage Wages Council have so far succssfully resisted the suggestion of .a universal grade outside London. On the other hand, specific instances supported by evidence are likely to receive sympathetic and in many cases favourable consideration by the council. There is a good deal of area activity with the ultimate intention of lodging individual claims for upgrading.
At the moment the situation is not entirely in favour of the workers. Nationalization stimulated the demand for upgrading. Except in the special case of London, the R.H.E. has to treat all its employees alike. One man cannot be paid less for doing the same job as another. Men who were receiving under free enterprise considerably more than the statutory minimum are not pleased with the process of levelling out, but the general adoption by the R.H.E. of Grade 1 wages has helped workers who were formerly paid only at the lower rate: The unions have a useful weapon with which to fight their case for the abolition of Grade 2, or at the very least for Upgrading in any place where the R.H.E. has a depot. They can give examples where two drivers, both engaged on local services, are paid on two different scales, one by the R.H.E. and the other as a Grade 2 worker under the Road Haulage Wages Orders. Frequently, the second man may receive extra reward, making his pay as much as or more than that of the nationalized worker, but the fact remains that he cannot claim the addition as a right.
Paradox of Upgrading
It is paradoxical that denationalization may be the means for completing the process of upgrading. At present, whatever the unions may say about the higher wages paid by the R.H.E. in Grade 2 areas, the freeenterprise hauliers have a powerful answer. They are handicapped in their businesses by the 25-mile limit imposed—the politically minded among them may add —by the party which owes a good deal of its strength to the unions which now seek to place a further financial burden on the hauliers.
Whenever a driver goes into a higher-rated area, he may claim the higher wage rate for the journey. Through the operation, of the 25-mile limit, he is now often prevented from -making the trip. The employer, who is not responsible for this state of affairs, naturally is not pleased at being asked still to pay the extra wages because they have been conceded by the organization that has taken his long-distance work away.
The employers' arguments are strengthened at the present lime by the fairly general fall in traffic. In a lean period the restricted operator has less room to manoeuvre and more quickly gets into difficulties. It is not, perhaps, the best time to suggest that he should pay more wages. It may be said that the ability of the employer to keep his business thriving has no necessary connection with the cost of living, but the haulier may complain with some justice that he is expected to lose on the roundabouts as well as the swings.
Grade 1 for Re-entrants
The position will be different when the new Bill has taken full effect, when the 25-mile limit has been abolished and the R.H.E. returned to free enterprise. Although the Bill does not stipulate that industrial agreements in force in the R.H.E. shall be transferred to purchasers of transport units, and the Government thinks that it would be impracticable to make such a provision, it may be assumed that the unions will press hard for their preservation. In effect, new entrants or re-entrants to haulage may have to pay Grade I wages everywhere outside London.
Existing hauliers will find it difficult to give reasons why, if they be not already doing so, they should not pay wages at the higher rate. Soon after denationalization there is likely to be a demand by the unions that Grade 2 should follow Grade 3 into the limbo of forgotten Road Haulage Wages Orders.