CO129-603-4 Industrial relations- necessity for introducing arbitration procedures 16-10-1946 - 20-12-1946 — Page 48

VII.

STATUTORY WAGE REGULATION.

(a) Introductory.

Although wages and conditions of employment in Great Britain are, in the main, settled by voluntary methods, various forms of statutory wage regulation. have been introduced where experience has shown this to be necessary. Acts regulating wages are as follows:-

The

(i) The Trade Boards Acts of 1909 and 1918, and the Agricultural Wages

Acts of 1924 and 1337, introduced to meet the needs of trades and industries where, owing to lack of organisation, no adequate machinery exists for the effective regulation of wages and wages are at an unsatisfactory level;

(ii) The Cotton Manufacturing Industry (Temporary Frovisions) Act, 1934,

designed to secure the maintenance of voluntary agreeinents reached by organised sections of the industry in face of competition from unorganised sections operating lower standards;

(iii) The Coal lines (Minimum Wage) Act, 1912, to determine minimum time

rates for all grades of underground workers;

and

(iv) The Road Haulage Wages lct, 1938, substituting statutory regulation

of wages by means of joint boards for a voluntary system which had broken down owing to lack of organisation on both sides, and had failed to prevent uneconomic price cutting based in certain cases on the payment of exceptionally low wages.

Further details of the Acts in question are given in the following paragraphs.

(b) Trade Boards Acts, 1909 and 1918.

The Trade Boards system is the oldest existing form of State wage interven- tion in Great Britain. The earlier Act was passed after some twenty years' agitation for the suppression of sweating, following the recommendations of a. Committee of the House of Commons appointed in 1908, in favour of legislation for the setting up of boards to fix minimum rates in certain sweated trades. The Act empowered the Board of Trade (now the Ministry of Labour and National Service) to set up a board to fix minimum wages in any trade in which the rate of wages was exceptionally low as compared with other industries.

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The 1918 Act, which was based on the recommendations of the "Whitley" Committee, extended the operation of the earlier Act by cnpowering the Minister of Labour and National Service to set up a trade board in any trade in which he is of opinion that "no adequate machinery exists for the effective regula- tion of wages throughout the trade, and that accordingly, having regard to the rates of wages prevailing in the trade or any part of the trade, it is expedient that the Acts should apply to that trade."

At the present time there are 50 Trade Boards in Great Britain dealing with 43 trades. In some trades there are separate Boards for England and Wales and Scotland. Each Board consists of members representing employers and members representing workpeople in equal numbers, together with a number of independent

A11 one of whom acts as Chairman. persons known as "Appointed Members". members of the Boards are appointed by the Minister of Lebour and normally hold office for two years. The number of representative members on the different Boards varies considerably ranging from 50 in the case of the Milk Distributive Trade Board to 12 in the case of the Pin, Hook and Eye and Snap Fastener Trade Board.

Trade Boards are required to fix minimum rates of wages for time work. They may also fix other minimum rates, viz: general minimum piece rates, special minimum piece rates, guaranteed time rates, piecework basis time rates and overtime rates; and in the case of these rates may also fix different rates for different classes of workers or for different districts.

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