National Dock Labour Board

Last updated

The National Dock Labour Board (NDLB), which administered the National Dock Labour Scheme, was an administrative board for the operation of British docks.

Contents

Creation of National Dock Labour Board

In 1947, Parliament introduced the "Dock Workers’ (Regulation of Employment) Scheme". The scheme was administered by the National Dock Labour Board, and by local boards, made up of equal numbers of "persons representing dock workers in the port and of persons representing the employers of such dockworkers", the scheme was financed by a levy on the employers. Each local board was responsible for keeping a register of employers and workers, paying wages and attendance money, controlling the hiring of labour, and responsibility for discipline.

Reasons for creation

The scheme was introduced by the Labour government in response to the Dock Strike of 1945. The strike was a rank-and-file protest for an increase in basic pay, and was not officially supported by the Transport and General Workers Union. The strikers were condemned as 'unpatriotic' by Arthur Deakin, General Secretary of the T&G. The government used troops to keep the ports open, and the strike ended after six weeks when the striking dockers accepted an assurance from the T&G leaders that they would negotiate a 'Docker's Charter' with the government.

Under the scheme, dock work was considered a "job for life", with any registered docker laid off by any of the 150 firms associated with the scheme either being guaranteed employment elsewhere or a £25,000 pay off. [1]

Abolition of the National Dock Labour Board

The National Dock Labour Scheme was abolished in 1989 by the Conservative government under Margaret Thatcher. The then Employment Secretary, Norman Fowler, told MPs the scheme had become 'a total anachronism' that stood in the way of a modern and efficient ports industry. [2]

Fowler offered assurances that any docker laid off as a result of the scheme being abolished would be compensated up to the value of £35,000. [1]

Notable members

Notable members of the National Dock Labour Board included Jack Dash.

Sport and recreation

The NDLB introduced a sport and recreation programme for the workers which included a rowing club called the Argosies Rowing Club. [3] The club achieved national success when winning the coxless pairs title at the inaugural 1972 British Rowing Championships. [4]

Related Research Articles

Workers compensation Form of insurance

Workers' compensation or workers' comp is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue his or her employer for the tort of negligence. The trade-off between assured, limited coverage and lack of recourse outside the worker compensation system is known as "the compensation bargain". One of the problems that the compensation bargain solved is the problem of employers becoming insolvent as a result of high damage awards. The system of collective liability was created to prevent that, and thus to ensure security of compensation to the workers.

United Kingdom labour law Law in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK benefit from a minimum charter of employment rights, which are found in various Acts, Regulations, common law and equity. This includes the right to a minimum wage of £8.91 for over-25-year-olds under the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. The Working Time Regulations 1998 give the right to 28 days paid holidays, breaks from work, and attempts to limit excessively long working hours. The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives the right to leave for child care, and the right to request flexible working patterns. The Pensions Act 2008 gives the right to be automatically enrolled in a basic occupational pension, whose funds must be protected according to the Pensions Act 1995.

National Minimum Wage Act 1998 United Kingdom legislation

The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 creates a minimum wage across the United Kingdom. From 1 April 2021 this was £8.91 for people age 23 and over, £8.36 for 21- to 22-year-olds, £6.56 for 18- to 20-year-olds, £4.62 for people under 18 and £4.30 for apprentices.

Attlee ministry UK government, 1945–1951

Clement Attlee was invited by King George VI to form the Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom in July 1945, succeeding Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 1945 general election, and went on to enact policies of what became known as the post-war consensus, including the establishment of the welfare state and the nationalisation of some industries. The government's spell in office was marked by post-war austerity measures, the violent crushing of pro-independence and socialist movements in Malaya, Vietnam and Indonesia, the grant of independence to India, the engagement in the Cold War against Soviet Communism as well as the creation of the country's National Health Service (NHS).

Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union

The Federated Ship Painters and Dockers Union (FSPDU) was an Australian trade union which existed between 1900 and 1993. It represented labourers in the shipbuilding industry, covering "mostly work associated with chipping, painting, scrubbing [and] cleaning [ships], working in every size of tanks, cleaning boilers, docking and undocking vessels, and rigging work".

The Liverpool Dockers' dispute was a lengthy dispute between dockers, their employers Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) and Torside Ltd, which lasted for twenty-eight months between 1995 and 1998 in Liverpool, England. Although considered a strike, it was strictly a lockout as the employers, Mersey Docks, sacked the dockers for breach of contract when they refused to cross a picket line set up by their sacked Torside Limited colleagues. Initially, five Torside workers were dismissed following a dispute regarding overtime pay, who in turn formed a picket line that other dockers refused to cross in solidarity.

National Insurance Act 1911 Social welfare legislation, UK

The National Insurance Act 1911 created National Insurance, originally a system of health insurance for industrial workers in Great Britain based on contributions from employers, the government, and the workers themselves. It was one of the foundations of the modern welfare state. It also provided unemployment insurance for designated cyclical industries. It formed part of the wider social welfare reforms of the Liberal Governments of 1906–1915, led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman and H. H. Asquith. David Lloyd George, the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer, was the prime moving force behind its design, negotiations with doctors and other interest groups, and final passage, assisted by Home Secretary Winston Churchill.

The Battle of Ballantyne Pier occurred in Ballantyne Pier during a docker's strike in Vancouver, British Columbia, in June 1935. The federally-owned dock was named for the head of the Harbours Board, which built it. There were ongoing strikes on the West Coast of North America in the Depression and it led to the right to collectively bargain and the rise of the I.L.W. U.

Ministry of Labour (United Kingdom) Former Uk ministry

The Ministry of Labour was a British government department established by the New Ministries and Secretaries Act 1916. It later morphed into the Department of Employment. Most of its functions are now performed by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894

The Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act 1894 was a piece of industrial relations legislation passed by the Parliament of New Zealand in 1894. Enacted by the Liberal Government of New Zealand, it was the world's first compulsory system of state arbitration. It gave legal recognition to unions and enabled them to take disputes to a Conciliation Board, consisting of members elected by employers and workers.

United Kingdom agency worker law refers to the law which regulates people's work through employment agencies in the United Kingdom. Though statistics are disputed, there are currently between half a million and one and a half million agency workers in the UK, and probably over 17,000 agencies. As a result of judge made law and absence of statutory protection, agency workers have more flexible pay and working conditions than permanent staff covered under the Employment Rights Act 1996.

Indian labour law refers to law regulating labour in India. Traditionally, Indian government at federal and state level have sought to ensure a high degree of protection for workers, but in practice, this differs due to form of government and because labour is a subject in the concurrent list of the Indian Constitution.

Kenneth Victor Dwan is a former British rower who competed in the Olympic Games in 1968 and 1972 and won the Wingfield Sculls six times.

1907 Belfast Dock strike

The Belfast Dock strike or Belfast lockout took place in Belfast, Ireland from 26 April to 28 August 1907. The strike was called by Liverpool-born trade union leader James Larkin who had successfully organised the dock workers to join the National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL). The dockers, both Protestant and Catholic, had gone on strike after their demand for union recognition was refused. They were soon joined by carters, shipyard workers, sailors, firemen, boilermakers, coal heavers, transport workers, and women from the city's largest tobacco factory. Most of the dock labourers were employed by powerful tobacco magnate Thomas Gallaher, chairman of the Belfast Steamship Company and owner of Gallaher's Tobacco Factory.

Department of Labour and Employment (Tamil Nadu)

The Department of Labour and Employment of state of Tamil Nadu is one of the Department of Government of Tamil Nadu

Minimum Wages Act 1948 article

The Minimum Wages Act 1948 is an Act of Parliament concerning Indian labour law that sets the minimum wages that must be paid to skilled and unskilled labours.

2013 Hong Kong dock strike

The 2013 Hong Kong dock strike was a 40-day labour strike at the Kwai Tsing Container Terminal. It was called by the Union of Hong Kong Dockers (UHKD), an affiliate of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) on 28 March 2013, against contracting companies to whom workforce management had been out-sourced by the Hongkong International Terminals Ltd. (HIT), subsidiary of Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPHT), which is in turn owned by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (HWL), flagship company of Li Ka-shing, Hong Kong's richest man. The strike workers demanded better pay and working conditions. The strike ended on 6 May 2013 when the strikers accepted the offer of 9.8% pay rise. It was the longest running industrial action in Hong Kong in years. Public support and media attention on the strike were unprecedented in the city's history. Some observers marked this as the rejuvenation of political engagement.

Walter Greendale was a British trade unionist and politician.

The Leith dockers strike of 1913 was a strike of the dockers of Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland, from 26 June to 14 August 1913. The Dockers were part of the National Union of Dock Labourers (NUDL) union. The strike is said to have brought Leith to a standstill.

The 1923 United Kingdom dock strike commenced in June 1923 when over 50,000 dockers were unhappy with a proposed pay reduction from 8s to 5s 6d for a four-hour minimum employment period. Ernest Bevin, the general secretary of the recently founded Transport and General Workers' Union had signed an agreement accepting this new rate of pay.

References

  1. 1 2 "1989: Dockers' 'jobs for life' scrapped". BBC. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  2. Labour unrest in the port after 1889, Royal Museums Greenwich , retrieved 22 February 2014
  3. "Henley". Globe Rowing Club.
  4. "Railton, Jim. "Nottingham in their Olympic stride." Times, 21 July 1972, p. 10". Times Digital Archives.