§ 3.40 p.m.
§ LORD NEWTONMy Lords, perhaps I might now reply to the Private Notice Question which the noble Earl the Leader of the Opposition asked me earlier this afternoon. My right honourable friend the Postmaster General has just answered a similar Question in another place and, with permission, I will use his own words:
"In December last the Union of Post Office Workers claimed a substantial increase in pay for postmen. At the beginning of this year the Post Office offered a three-year agreement providing increases of 4 per cent. from January 1, 1964, and 3½ per cent. in each of the two subsequent years. The Union were not willing to accept the 4 per cent. in the first year, or to use the normal machinery for resolving disputes in the Civil Service—the Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal. They pressed instead for an independent inquiry into the pay of postmen. After discussion it was agreed to set up a committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. A. L. Armitage, to rule on the proper interpretation of the particular paragraph of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Civil Service, 1953–55, which was said by the Union to be the crux of the matter. It was also agreed that the committee's findings would be accepted, and that if it proved impossible to reach a settlement by negotiation in the light of the committee's recommendations the issue would be referred to the Civil Service Arbitration Tribunal.
"Broadly speaking the committee felt there should be more comparisons with people doing similar work in manufacturing industry and with people whose qualities compared with those of postmen. With a view to giving effect to the Report I suggested an immediate Pay Research survey. The team of experts who made the last survey of postmen's pay are now available and I believe 25 that a new survey could be completed in about two months. In putting this proposal to the Union last week I offered at the same time to increase the pay of postmen straight away by 4 per cent. as from January 1, 1964, and I also stated that any further resulting increase in pay which stemmed from negotiations on pay research would also be backdated to January 1, 1964.
"This offer is not the same as the offer the Post Office made earlier this year. It is however fully consistent with the report of the Armitage Committee.
"The Union's representatives rejected this proposal. They said that nothing less than an immediate increase, backdated to January 1, 1964, of 10½ per cent. to be followed by pay research would be acceptable to them. I cannot regard this as justifiable and I accordingly suggested to the Union that if, on further reflection, they were still unwilling to accept the Post Office offer they should take the case to arbitration as they had earlier promised to do.
"As the House knows there has already been widespread unofficial industrial action and the Union has decided to call a one-day strike on Thursday to be followed by other industrial action. Postal services have already been disrupted and the inland parcel service to and from London has been suspended. As from midnight to-night I am having to suspend the inland parcel service altogether and also the inland printed paper service. I shall of course do my best to minimise the inconvenience which this will inevitably cause to the public."
That, my Lords, is my right honourable friend's Answer.
EARL ALEXANDER OF HILLS-BOROUGHMy Lords, I am very much obliged to the noble Lord for giving us the answer which has been made in another place. We are all I am sure, in all Parties, very concerned about this dispute in the Post Office. The postmen have always been a very hardworking and loyal body of people who have served the nation over and over again. There must be something in this situation which has greatly angered them, 26 for such a powerful and influential Civil Service union as the Union of Post Office Workers to be disobeyed by so many of their people in the last two days, causing such trouble. I hope that something immediate may be done or offered to try to bring this tension to an end. I cannot expect the noble Lord, Lord Newton, to tell me anything more of what the Government have in mind at the present time. But I am quite sure that the nation at large is so jolly well satisfied with the general service of postmen that they will want to see this dispute brought to an end as soon as possible, and a sense of justice left in the men's minds.