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If the cap fits. ..
Page 50
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A BITTER BLOW was dealt to hauliers last week when the Government decided to axe the Road Haulage Wages Council.
Not that the move was all that unexpected, for the Council had been moribund for some time.
But operators had been hoping that it would be replaced by some sort of national negotiating body.
Secretary of State for Employment, Albert Booth, dashed those hopes when he accepted the recommendations con tained in a report by the Advisory, Concilliation and Arbitration Service.
The report bluntly rejects the employers' idea that the Wages Council be converted into a Statutory Joint Industrial Council (SJIC). And although the trade associations are pressing Mr Booth to reverse his decision, they chances of a change of mind are slim.
Back in October there was a chink of hope that ACAS might lean towards the operators' way Of ihinking.
Jim Mortimer, ACAS chairman, speaking at the Road Haulage Association's annual conference in Eastbourne, was put under heavy pressure by delegates after he sounded the Council's death knell.
He said the most significant fact to emerge from the ACAS inquiry into the industry was the way in which localised collective bargaining was being developed.
There were 14 regional agreements between assenting haulier groups and the unions. This established a widespread pattern.
"The general view is that in future these regional agreements will be extended and developed. This is the trend," he said.
Mr Mortimer was quickly left in no doubt that this regional agreement pattern did not meet with approval.
E. B. R. Smith, of C. W. Bridge (Felixstowe) Ltd, summed up the feeling of the delegates when he said: "We are scared to death that these local agreements will be allowed to proceed in a situation where free collective bargaining takes place.
"This happened two years ago when the Scottish agreement was imposed by brute force. Such a thing could happen again and again.
"We are dead against area agreements without a strong national negotiationg body to provide back-up."
And John Silbermann. RHA vice-chairman, hammered the point home when he said that the majority of assenting hauliers had not voluntarily joined the groups.
"It's that or confrontation." he commented and went on to warn that the unions were trying to pre-empt the ACAS inquiry findings by forcing the setting up of as many assenting haulier groups as possible.
Mr Mortimer seemed to have got the message. "1 take the point that you believe assenting haulier groups are not characteristic of the industry, and note that you want national negotiating machinery.
"I am grateful for your message. Perhaps I have learnt more from you today than you have from me." These words gave the assembled delegates hope that an SJIC could be included as one of the recommendations in the ACAS report. But it was not to be.
The reasons for this decision make interesting reading and almost put the ball back in the RHA's court.
"The case for the SJIC, mainly put forward by the RHA, is the need to prevent leap-frogging of wage claims, between individual employers or between regions.
"We fail to see how national machinery in this industry could prevent leap-frogging" the report goes on.
"There is no evidence that the existence of centrally determined minimum rates of pay has prevented the development of some form of bargaining to enhance the nationally agreed rates.
"A national negotiating body would, in our view, once again become an agency for agreeing minimum rates, with these being subject to additional regional differentials.
"An SJIC would undoubtedly prevent rates of pay falling below an agreed minimum, but there is nothing in its machinery to prevent additional supplements being negotiated."
And then came the crunch.
"The effectiveness of an SJIC will depend primarily on the ability of the two sides to negotiate agreements which will be binding on those they represent.
"The RHA has informed us that it does not wish to become a negotiating body, although it would provide representatives to sit on an SJIC. "In our view, such an attitude will result in most negotiations reaching the stage of obligatory arbitration, and would represent no improvement on the position which existed under the Wages Council.
"We conclude that an SJIC would not be a step towards the development of voluntary collective bargaining. Bearing in mind the position of the RHA we do not see the development of voluntary national machinery as being a practical alternative at the present time."
Boiled down, all that means is that if the RHA will not negotiate for the hauliers, it can't have an SJIC.
Instead, the report says that it was impressed by the trade union argument in favour of regional and local negotiations, since these would allow more lay members to become involved "and thus ensure that agreements entered into will be more binding on, and acceptable to all members."
Despite this, ACAS does leave the door open for an SJIC "should this become practicable— which presumably means if the RHA is prepared to become a negotiating body.
It suggests that a "national forum" should be established for discussion on matters of common interest to all those concerned in the industry.
"We believe that such a, national forum could form the basis of future negotiating machinery."
The RHA has already said that a national forum is no substitute for an SJIC. The solution may be in its own hands.