INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES TRIBUNAL SIR,—The Government's determination to revoke Order 1376
and so put an end to the machinery of the Industrial Disputes Tribunal is a blow at the very existence of certain `blackcoar organisations such as the Guild of Insurance Officials.
A majority of managements in insurance will not negotiate or resort to voluntary arbitration upon claims for improvements in staff conditions. As the Guild does not employ the `strike' weapon, the remedy in such cases has been to refer the claim under Order 1376 and obtain an award from the Industrial Dis- putes Tribunal. Now that the Minister of Labour has destroyed this method—no new reference may be made under the Order after today—what alternative does he suggest? Is he, in effect, saying to insurance clerks and officials, 'Forget your reasonableness -and desire for friendly relations with managements, reverse your policy, and engineer strikes'? He has refused eve to discuss the problem with a deputation from the Guild or to consider alternative measures to Order 1376.
I hope your readers will take a careful note of this blatant example of political indifference to the needs of non-manual employees. A former Minister of Labour who is now chairman of one of the Big Five banks, whatever his present attitude, would hardly have acted in the dictatorial manner adopted in the abrupt revocation of Order 1376 by the present Minister, Mr. lain Macleod.—Yours faithfully,
R. E. DEWBERRY
Joint General Secretary
Guild of Insurance 'Officials, 7 St. Thomas Street, SE!
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