Arbitration Tribunal for Municipal Claim
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FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
British Coach Rally THE 1965 British Coach Rally—the 11th in the series—will be held during the week-end of April 24-25 and will again be centred on Brighton. The rally is sponsored by Transport World and organized in conjunction with Brighton Corporation by Mr. John Fielder.
The most important changes this year are that it will both start and finish on Brighton's Madeira Drive and that the driving tests will precede the road section. British Coach Rally secretary is Mr. Robert Bromley and all inquiries about the event should be addressed to British Coach Rally Office, 147 Victoria Street, London, S.W.1.
Smarter Conductors: South Shields Corporation has agreed to provide new uniforms every year for Corporation busmen. The decision follows a controversy a few weeks ago, when a local councillor commented on the untidy appearance of Corporation conductors. 'THE Minister of Labour, Mr. Ray L Gunter, announced last week the setting up of a three-man Arbitration Tribunal to settle the pay dispute between leaders of 70,000 municipal busmen and their employers. Its terms of reference are: "To determine the claim of the trade union side for a substantial increase in the rates of pay of operating and depot maintenance staff employed in municipal passenger transport undertakings."
Chairman of the Tribunal will be Prof. D. J. Robertson, Professor of Applied Economics and head of the Department of Social and Economic Research at Glasgow University. He will be assisted by Mr. T. A. Swinden, director of the Engineering Employers' Federation, and Mr. S. A. Robinson, president of the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives and a member of the General Council of the T.U.C.
The Tribunal has been set up at the request of the two sides of the National Joint Industrial Council for the Road Passenger Transport Industry after the failure of direct negotiations as well as of intervention by Ministry conciliation officers. Although the findings will not be binding, it is hoped that as both sides asked for the Tribunal they will accept its verdict.
It is expected that the Tribunal will start its hearings very shortly and will find its task made more difficult by the fact that two other claims are being considered by sub-committees of the Council and are outside the scope of its task. These are a demand for a 40-hour week and for a bonus scheme based on the capacity and/or takings of the vehicles operated. The only claim before the Tribunal is that for a straight pay rise.
As the provincial busmen's demands are basically an attempt to catch up with their London colleagues—who last year gained an average pay rise of 38s. a week by a variety of payments—the Tribunal will be able to deal with only one part of the problem.