who come up through the ranks. At the same time, many of the positions filled by licensed officers do not require the degree of training obtainable in the various maritime academies. By encouraging and reinstituting the practice of promotion from the unlicensed to the licensed categories, a further solution is offered for resolving the problem of any surplus labor among the unlicensed groups. It is also probably the most effective method for securing the needed supply of officers.

Logic and the Situation

Advances in shipboard automation will also require changes in existing trade union functions and structural arrangements. One of the major problems in the adjustment of the labor force will be the provision of adequate training facilities. For licensed officers who have not recently graduated from one of the maritime academies, special training will be required in the operation and maintenance of the new types of equipment. Training will also be needed for men who seek promotion from unlicensed to licensed categories, as well as for unlicensed men who wish to be upgraded to new unlicensed positions calling for greater skills. Much of this training will have to be undertaken by the unions, with financial assistance wherever possible, coming through automation funds or the use of Government retraining funds. A number of unions, aware of this need, have moved to provide special training courses for their members.

In addition to undertaking these training functions, the unions are also likely to find it necessary to enter into cooperative arrangements to facilitate the upgrading and promotion of their members. The problem here is the current lack of any provision for transferring pension rights from one union to another. In the absence of arrangements for the vesting of pension credits, unlicensed seamen will continue to be indifferent toward promotions for the reason that this entails moving de novo into another pension scheme. The ultimate solution to this problem may be a unified pension plan for the industry as a whole. More immediate measures would involve interunion arrangements for accepting pension credits already earned elsewhere, with appropriate financial adjustments among the unions.

Another major problem confronting the maritime trade unions relates to the impact of ship

board automation upon traditional job classifications. Further automation of the engineroom, for example, might well eliminate the present functions of the engineering officers. One view is that the deck and engineering officer classifications should be combined and future deck officers trained to perform both functions. In anticipation of this contingency, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy has begun experimentally to train a group of such "omnicompetent" officers. Another view-that advanced by the engineering officers' union-is that only trained engineers will be able to handle the complicated equipment on an automated ship, and that the role of the engineer will therefore be enhanced. The question resolves itself into one of the degree of technical competence necessary to maintain and repair the type of equipment future automated ships will carry. It is dubious that major repairs of highly sophisticated types of automation equipment can be made at sea. More likely there will be standby equipment which will enable a ship to reach port where the necessary repairs can be made. To the extent that repairs will consist of replacing factory-built units, it is doubtful that highly technical engineering training will be required. Under these circumstances, with further reductions in manning, the eventual combining of licensed deck and engineer personnel into a single operating category would seem to be inevitable. This would support the contention that future licensed officers for automated ships should be trained for both navigational and technical skills. If this were in fact to occur, the consolidation of the existing licensed officers' unions into a single comprehensive union, which would appear to be a desirable development in any event, would most likely follow. Similar consolidations among the unlicensed personnel may also result, especially with the combining of deck and engineroom maintenance.

What is involved here is a new concept of ship operation. The traditional departments were based on craft lines. Now the emphasis is on function, with the new, automated equipment cutting across traditional craft divisions. The existing craft distinctions create jurisdictional problems which complicate the development of an efficient crew organization. The logic of the

situation calls for a single officers' union and a single industrial union of unlicensed seamen, with reciprocal arrangements for the transfer of pension rights. This would make possible the simplification of hiring arrangements and the proper adjustment of the available manpower to the needs of the industry. Although consolidation of the separate trade unions will not occur in the immediate future, unless under extreme Government pressure, the working out of joint arrangements as has been suggested, will be a move in this direction.

Whether or not these changes can take place through collective bargaining remains to be seen.

The more equitable distribution of subsidy aid and the expansion of the American merchant marine, when and if they occur, will make more likely the cooperation of the trade unions in solving the maritime industry's problems, including the need to adopt more advanced technology. But technology, in turn, has a structural impact. By shifting the emphasis from craft to functional needs, it leads to the reshaping of the existing craft-oriented unions along industrial lines. The decision to accept automation inevitably leads in this direction. That it will come about through a series of interim arrangements and over a span of time will not alter its long-run implications.

Paid Vacations and Holidays in

the United Kingdom

WILLIAM GERBER*

IN THE United Kingdom, paid vacations are usually provided through collective bargaining agreements. However, in industries where the union cannot bargain effectively, tripartite wages councils or agricultural wages boards are authorized by law to administer vacations along with wages and other terms of employment.1

Length of Vacation

The

Although the standard length for the annual vacation is still 2 weeks, many industries are beginning to include in their agreements provision for increasing the vacation to 3 weeks. British Employers' Confederation estimated that more than 20 percent of the wage earners in 1964 came under such agreements. Approximately 3 percent were already receiving vacations of 3 weeks, according to the confederation.

Most industries increase their workers' vacations from the basic 2 weeks gradually, usually by 3 days after 10 years and to the full 3 weeks after 25 (or, in some cases, 15) years. Workers in road passenger services receive a 3-day increase after only 5 years of service. In soap manufacturing, however, vacations increase to 3 weeks from 2 in one step, after a worker completes 10 years of service.

Although length of service seems to be the most common basis for increasing vacation time, there are collective agreements that require that certain occupational groups be given vacations longer than 2 weeks. All workers involved in the manufacturing of pig iron and heavy steel, for example,

receive 18 days annually. Typists in the health services are entitled to vacations according to their age. Twelve working days are granted if they are under 18 years of age; 15 working days if they are 18 years or older.

In England and Wales, the Agricultural Wages Board has ordered that farm workers there receive 1 day of vacation for each month of regular employment; the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board provides for 1 day of vacation with pay for each 5 weeks of continuous employment, with a maximum of 11 days if the workers are employed for the entire year. Weekly paid workers are allowed 6 "optional" (but specified) days as holidays. If those days are not taken, the worker receives overtime pay for working on them. Shepherds are allowed 10 further "optional" days off which, if not taken, are required to be paid for at the overtime rate in addition to the minimum wage.

Scheduling

Collective agreements often provide that the vacation is to be taken between May 1 and September 30. Wages councils also require workers in nonfarm industries to take their vacations during a specified time, usually April to September. The wages councils have ordered that if a worker's vacation entitlement exceeds his normal workweek, he is usually required to divide it by taking the days exceeding 1 week at other times. In collective agreements, however, workers may take their full period of vacation in consecutive weeks.

Vacation scheduling policies for farm workers reflect the need to hold labor through peak periods. Farm workers who work 7-day weeks and who are entitled to 1 or 2 Sunday holidays a year, depending on the number of weeks they work, cannot include a Sunday other than the one(s) prescribed in their regular vacation. Further, the Agricul

*Of the Division of Foreign Labor Conditions, Bureau of Labor Statistics. This note was based on material found in the Industrial Relations Handbook (London, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1961) and on recent summary papers prepared by labor attachés and other public officials.

1 The latest statutes covering the councils and boards are the Wages Councils Act, 1959; the Agricultural Wages (England and Wales) Act, 1948; and the Agricultural Wages (Scotland) Act. 1949.

tural Wages Board (England and Wales) requires that vacations of farm workers be taken so as not to include Sundays or specified public holidays regardless of the length of his workweek. The worker does, however, have the right to take half of his vacation time on consecutive days during April 1-October 31. In Scotland, farm workers may take one period of a week between May 1 and August 31.

In collective agreements in industry, vacation scheduling is usually left to the employer. Sometimes the plant is closed down and sometimes vacations are staggered. Under the statutory orders, the employer is required to give reasonable notice 28 days or more, in some cases-of the commencing date and the duration of the vacation.

Determination of Pay

The amount of vacation pay is specified in some agreements as "with pay" or "with full pay" but without any further definition. Other agreements fix the amount equal to average weekly earnings over a certain period or fix a flat rate of vacation pay for all workers, regardless of the individual worker's rate. Where vacation pay is fixed by statutory order, the payment is often at the statutory minimum time rate, but the practice is growing of relating a worker's vacation pay to his average "normal" earnings (not including bonuses, shift pay, etc.) over a given period.

Under the statutory orders, a worker receives his pay for vacation time on the payday preceding his vacation.

Agreements vary with respect to vacation pay for workers who either leave their job or are discharged before they have taken their vacation. In many instances, workers are paid for earned vacation time unless they were dismissed for misconduct or left without giving proper notice. A few agreements provide for vacation pay regardless of the reason for termination of employment.

2 Alex Rubner, Fringe Benefits: The Golden Chains (London, Putnam & Co., Ltd., 1962), p. 29.

Some collective agreements prohibit a worker from taking paid employment during his vacation. In the steel industry, in fact, employees caught working for other firms during their vacation “. . . must hand over their illicit earnings to their regular employers." 2

To qualify for the full annual vacation with pay, a worker must, under most collective agreements, have been employed by the firm for 12 months up to the vacation or some other specified date, and it is frequently stipulated that such service must have been continuous. Under these agreements, workers with less than the full qualifying service are usually entitled to a shorter vacation or a reduced vacation payment, generally on a pro rata basis.

It is an offense for an employer to pay an agricultural worker less than the minimum rate or to fail to allow a prescribed vacation. The Ministry of Agriculture has a staff of inspectors whose duty is to see that this does not happen.

Holidays

The paid public holidays in England and Wales are: Good Friday, Easter Monday, Whit-Monday, the first Monday in August, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day (first weekday after Christmas).

In Scotland, there are 5 holidays, including Good Friday, the first Monday in August, Christmas, New Year's Day, and the first Monday in May. Northern Ireland observes the same 6 as the British, plus St. Patrick's Day (March 17) and Battle of Boyne Day (July 12).

Payment for specially proclaimed holidays is provided in some agreements.

If a worker is required to work on a public holiday, the statutory orders stipulate that the employer must either pay at overtime rates, provide another day off, or, in some cases, both. The entitlement to overtime pay, however, does not apply to milkers or farm workers paid by the hour in Scotland. Payment of wages for public holidays is not generally dependent on a period of service, but rules regarding attendance are often specified in collective agreements.

207-233 O-66-3

THE ISSUES discussed in this report are complex and diverse. A brief summary of major conclusions cannot do justice to the report, [but it] may serve a useful purpose in crystallizing the major points [supporting] the recommendations which have been made. The principal conclusions and recommendations follow.

There has been some increase in the pace of technological change. The most useful measure of this increase for policy purposes is the annual growth of output per man-hour in the private economy. If 1947 is chosen as a dividing point, the trend rate of increase from 1909 to that date was 2 percent per year; from 1947 to 1964, it was 3.1 percent per year. This is a substantial increase, but there . . is no evidence that there will be in the decade ahead, an acceleration in

*The Commission was appointed by the President in December 1964 and approved by the Senate Jan. 27, 1965, pursuant to Public Law 88-444. Its members were: Howard R. Bowen, Chairman; Benjamin Aaron, Joseph A. Beirne. Daniel Bell, Patrick E. Haggerty, Albert J. Hayes, Anna Rosenberg Hoffman, Edwin H. Land, Walter P. Reuther, Robert H. Ryan, Robert M. Solow, Philip Sporn, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. (appointed July 31, 1965, following the death of John Snyder), and Whitney M. Young, Jr.

The law outlined the Commission's task as follows:

a. To identify and assess the past effects and the current and prospective role and pace of technological change;

b. To identify and describe the impact of technological and economic change on production and employment, including new

technological change more rapid than the growth of demand can offset, given adequate public policies.1 2

To say that technological change does not bear major responsibility for the general level of unemployment is not to deny the role of technological change in the unemployment of particular persons in particular occupations, industries, and locations. Economic and technological changes have caused and will continue to cause displacement throughout the economy. Technological change, along with other changes, determines who will be displaced. The rate at which output grows in the total economy determines the total level of unemployment and how long those who become unemployed remain unemployed, as well as how difficult it is for new entrants to the labor force to find employment.

job requirements and the major types of worker displacement, both technological and economic, which are likely to occur dur ing the next 10 years; the specific industries, occupations, and geographic areas which are most likely to be involved; and the social and economic effects of these developments on the Nation's economy, manpower, communities, families, social structure, and human values;

c. To define those areas of unmet community and human needs toward which application of new technologies might most effectively be directed, encompassing an examination of technological developments that have occurred in recent years, including those resulting from the Federal Government's research and development programs;

d. To assess the most effective means for channeling new technologies into promising directions, including civilian industries where accelerated technological advancements will yield general benefits, and assess the proper relationship between governmental and private investment in the application of new technologies to large-scale human and community needs;

e. To recommend, in addition to those actions which are the responsibility of management and labor, specific administrative and legislative steps which it believes should be taken by the Federal, State, and local governments in meeting their responsibilities (1) to support and promote technological change in the interest of continued economic growth and improved well-being of our people, (2) to continue and adopt measures which will facilitate occupational adjustment and geographical mobility, and (3) to share the costs and help prevent and alleviate the adverse impact of change on displaced workers.

1 and 2 on p. 275.