Sharp Increase In Days Lost At British Docks

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31724, 6 July 1968, Page 17

Sharp Increase In Days Lost At British Docks

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON, July 4. The total number of man-days lost at British docks last year increased sharply from 108,895 in 1966 to 571,578, according to the annual report and accounts of the National Dock Labour Board. This was the highest figure recorded since 1955. In the first 37 weeks of last year, only 40,862 mandays were lost, but on the introduction of “decasualisation” on September 18, disputes arose over the terms and conditions of the new scheme and a further loss of

over 500,000 man-days occurred. The figures have been submitted by the board to Mrs Barbara Castle, First Secretary <rf State in the Department of Employment and Productivity. The declining trend of employment in 1966, during which an average of 48,529 men were employed each day, continued into 1967, when, during the first 37 weeks, the average was only 45,024. The position in the last 15 weeks, under the new scheme, was seriously affected by disputes, and the recorded employment average was 38,200 men a day. The report states that the weekly gross earning of daily workers for the first 37 weeks, under the early dock labour scheme, averaged

£22 10s sd, compared with an average of £22 0s 4d for the whole of 1966.

The statistics of earnings of weekly workers, which related only to those under continuous contract, were discontinued at the end of the fiscal year, 1966-67. The average weekly gross earnings a man amounted to £23 3s Bd, compared with £24 9s 5d in the previous fiscal year. Statistics of earnings under “decasualisatton” were not yet available, the report said, but payments of the board’s levy indicated that the gross earnings of permanent and supplementary workers In the first 15 weeks after September 18 exceeded £lBm. It was estimated that the number of these workers on the payroll during the period averaged 42,000 men a week.