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THE ROLE OF LABOR in government manifested itself in several labor-sparked coups d'etat in Africa, and the role of government in labor was illustrated in wage policies, work week limits, and other legislation by governments in the Old World. Employment was an important theme especially in regard to the impact of automation in Europe, manpower planning in the Philippines, and work permits in Singapore. In the field of labor-management relations, a national railway strike in Britain was narrowly averted in the fifth "cliff hanger" since 1960; Germany saw an increase in plant shutdowns for vacations; and Norway adopted a system of plant committees. Three Near Eastern countries made significant progress in coordinated efforts to promote social progress.

Africa-Labor and Politics

Efforts to establish and maintain wage guidelines or to reduce wages were among the factors instrumental in the recent overthrow of a number of African regimes and the source of serious problems in others. The regime in Upper Volta was overthrown following a general strike in the capital stemming from a 20-percent reduction ordered in civil service wages and salaries. Military regimes took over in the Central African Republic and Dahomey, where unpopular belt-tightening programs, such as wage curbs and rationing, were causing unrest, and in Ghana, where the cost of living had increased 10 percent in 1964 and 25 percent in the first 9 months of 1965 without a corresponding change in the level of wages. In the Congo (Leopoldville), reductions in some government salaries and allowances by the new administration caused widespread complaints.

The various austerity programs generally reflected attempts to cope with increasing economic

difficulties such as mounting inflation, trade deficits, and production shortages. In several of the countries, fear of growing Chinese Communist influence was also involved.

Europe-Automation

Automation is to be promoted rather than feared, according to speakers at the European Conference on Manpower Aspects of Automation and Technical Change, held in Zurich February 1-4 under the sponsorship of the Organization for Economic and Cooperation Development (OECD). Though boycotted by the OECD's Trade Union Advisory Committee for political reasons, the conference was well attended by 15 delegates and observers from all member countries except Iceland. A scattering of worker observers attended from Japan, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

Among the topics discussed were the low penetration of industrial innovations in Europe, the need for faster change to reduce the technological gap between Europe and the United States, and current labor shortages. The recent decline in unemployment in the United States and the findings of the U.S. National Commission on Technology, Automation, and Economic Progress 1 helped to moderate anxiety over the unemploy ment effects of automation. Special attention was given to the implications of automation for occupational patterns, industrial location, management problems, and the need for reform of educational systems and curriculums, especially with regard to (1) the linkage of general education to vocational or professional training and (2) the timing of occupational commitments.

Problems of workers' adjustment to technological change and of technological unemployment were reserved for discussion at a second conference to be held in Amsterdam in November 1966.

*Prepared in the Division of Foreign Labor Conditions, Bureat

of Labor Statistics, on the basis of material available in early April.

1 See Monthly Labor Review, March 1966, pp. 274-277.

Finland-Workweek

By 1969, Finland will have a 40-hour workweek. An amendment to the Hours of Work Act which was adopted by Parliament in late December 1965 calls for a 40-hour, 5-day week to be introduced throughout industry for 3 months in 1966, 6 months in 1967, 9 months in 1968, and 12 months in 1969 and thereafter. A 1946 act had previously limited normal hours of work to 8 hours a day and 47 hours a week.

Germany-Vacations

Almost one-third of all wage and salary earners in a group of 4,000 enterprises, surveyed by the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce, had to take their 1965 annual leave (or at least the minimums guaranteed under law or collective agreement) at a time when the entire plant was closed down for "vacation." Customary in France, these closed-plant vacations have been gaining significance in Germany in recent years, particularly in industries with assembly line production such as textiles and clothing, toys, and vehicle construction. For example, the Volkswagen company shuts down its production departments for about 3 weeks each July. The convenience of such shutdowns has also led managers in retail and handicraft shops to adopt the practice.

These closed-plant vacations generally fall within the period of the schools' summer vacations, and their concentration in the months of July and August has led to a marked decline in production during the summer and to major inconveniences for summer tourists, such as a shortage of hotel accommodations, high prices, and less service.

The Association suggested that school vacations be lengthened and staggered among the various parts of the country. The German trade unions. are asking for longer vacations, but do not object to closed-plant vacations as long as they coincide. with school vacations.

Near East-Social Progress

Labor and other aspects of social and economic development are included in the ambitious plans

of a three-country organization called Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD). The organization was established in July 1964 by the heads of state of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey to promote economic and cultural cooperation among its members. By February 1966, the RCD had "passed from the stage of planning and programing into the stage of implementation," according to the presiding officer of its highest authority, the Ministerial Council. For example, the 1966 program provides for technical training for 49 Iranians, 50 Pakistanis, and 40 Turks.

At the apex of the RCD organization, the delegations of the three countries are led by their Foreign Ministers, whose meetings are also attended by the Secretary General of the RCD. Reports from the Regional Planning Council form the basis for RCD policies, which are adopted by the Council of Ministers and submitted to the member countries for implementation. RCD programs are developed by committees functioning in 13 areas, such as industry, trade, transport, technical and cultural cooperation, and information. Adminis tration of the RCD functions through the Secretariat, established in 1965, is to be situated in Tehran for 3 years. Its budget, reportedly, is pounds sterling 62,000 for fiscal year March 1966– February 1967.

The following recommendations dealing with manpower have been made by the RCD Council of Ministers to the member countries:

1. Adopt more liberal repatriation and remittance facilities for nationals of one of the three countries working in another.

2. Encourage the employment within their countries of technical personnel of the other nationalities, particularly in planned RCD joint purpose ventures.

3. Give employment preference to technical personnel from within the region over foreign personnel.

Norway-Labor-Management Cooperation

Plant committees to promote labor-management cooperation are provided for in a recently adopted revision of the Basic Agreement between the Norwegian Employers' Association (NAF), which represents more than two-thirds of all persons in employers' organizations, and the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions (LO), which covers 82 percent of all trade union members. The Basic

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Agreement is of particular importance because it has provided the basis for self-government in labor relations since 1935, and because it is part of every contract between firms and unions which are members of the two central organizations. The NAF and LO plan to form a joint Cooperation Council which will act as an advisory body for the labor-management plant committees.

The plant committees are designed to provide a vehicle for more frequent and more useful employee participation in problems of plant operation. As defined in the Basic Agreement, a primary objective of this labor-management cooperation is to provide to employees the possibility of taking part in efforts to increase plant efficiency, reduce operating costs, improve the competitive ability of the firm, and thereby help create the economic prerequisites for job security and favorable employment conditions. To facilitate this participation, the Basic Agreement calls for providing employees with monthly information on matters that directly affect 'their jobs and their day-to-day operations, and consulting with the labor members of the plant committees on any plans for expansion, cutbacks, and other changes of importance to the employees.

Philippines-Labor Scene

The Philippine economy must develop sufficiently to find remunerative work for its more than 700,000 persons estimated to be currently unemployed and the 2.9 million underemployed (estimates are based on May 1964 figures-the latest month for which such data are available) and to create almost 1 million new jobs by 1970 to absorb the expected growth in the labor force. The labor force currently exceeds 11.4 million persons. (The labor force concept used is similar to that of the United States. However, it includes workers 10 years of age and older, and members of the Armed Forces.)

The Presidential Economic Staff (PES), which coordinates the government's economic development plans, presented the foregoing figures in a special report to President Ferdinand Marcos and criticized previous administrations for having neglected manpower research and planning and for failing to gear the educational system more efficiently to meet the need for trained manpower.

As a result, the PES continued, many are given the wrong kinds of training, while shortages of skills continue to arise.

66

Issued in December 1965, the PES report als stated: ... unemployment and underemploy ment prevent the effective enforcement of labor laws. Violations are rampant, despite extensive enforcement machinery, partly because workers are coerced into conniving with unscrupulous employers in evading the laws."

In his "State of the Republic" address in January 1966, President Marcos pledged his new regime to (1) provide an educational system (including a strengthened vocational and technical school system) which could tap the potentials and vitality of Philippine human resources, (2) enhance the productivity of the workers through improved training and placement services, and (3) implement existing labor legislation vigorously. He also called for a free, democratic, private enterprise oriented labor movement which would contribute to the nation's economic development.

Singapore-Work Permits

Noncitizen workers in Singapore who earn less than US$250 per month are now required to carry work permits. (The average monthly wage in Singapore is about US$80. According to a 1962 survey, more than 70 percent of all workers earned less than US$0.33 per hour.) Under the 1965 Regulation of Employment Act, which came into force on February 1, 1966, permits for those who are regularly employed are valid for an indefinite time period but only for the specific trade or occupation and the specific employer mentioned in the permit. Permits for contract workers are valid for only 1 year, but carry similar restrictions on occupation and employer.

The Government of Singapore issued the new regulation because of substantial unemployment among Singapore's citizens. There were 59,000 registrants with the Employment Exchange Service as of January 31, 1966. An estimated 60,000 to 100,000 noncitizens (many of whom are citizens of Malaysia) will be affected by the new requirement, according to the Ministry of Labor. The head of the Malaysian Government, Tunku Abdul Rahman, has vigorously protested the new regulation.

More workers move into Singapore than move out. Statistics released by the Ministry of Labor indicated that the number of persons who had moved from Malaysia to Singapore was 1,810 in December 1965, while the number of those who had moved from Singapore to Malaysia in that month was 58.

United Kingdom-Wage Policy

The Prices and Incomes Board recently approved pay raises for about 400,000 members of the Armed Forces. These increases exceed the 3.5percent incomes policy norm set by the Government and represent annual rates of increase of 6 to 7 percent, which, over the 2-year period, average 12.5 percent. The approved increases were based on comparisons with levels of incomes in other fields of employment, even though the 1965 white paper on prices and incomes policy had stated that less weight should be given to such comparisons. The Board itself had just refused to apply the concept of comparability in a decision concerning the wage demands of railroad workers threatening a national strike.

The Board justified its decision on wages of members of the Armed Forces by pointing out that (1) the increases conformed to the white paper's provisions for exceptional pay increases in specific cases, (2) the productivity criterion of the incomes policy could not be applied to the Armed Forces, and (3) use of the comparability principle was necessary because current recruitment was unsatisfactory.

Railwaymen. Through personal intervention, Prime Minister Harold Wilson averted a nationwide railway strike called for mid-February. Mr. Wilson granted improved vacation benefits and a 40-hour week effective February 28, and provided for the negotiation of a new scale of pensions. He also agreed that the industry's wage negotiation machinery should be overhauled. The National Union of Railwaymen (about 283,000 members) in turn agreed that the effective date of the negotiated 312-percent wage increase (within the "wage norm") would be September 1966-a compromise between the October date preferred by the government and the original union demand for an April date.

Significant Decisions in Labor Cases*

Labor Relations

Federal Preemption. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Federal district court has jurisdiction over a libel action under a State law for damages against a union for alleged defamatory statements during an organizational campaign about an employer subject to the Labor Management Relations Act, if the employer pleads and proves that the statements were malicious and caused him injury. Such a suit, the Court held, seeks to protect the State's interest and does not interfere with the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board over the labor dispute involved.

During an organizational campaign in Detroit, the union of plant guards and its officials arranged for distribution of leaflets to the employees. The leaflets stated that their company had 10 assignments in Saginaw employing 52 men who were deprived of their right to vote in the NLRB elec tion; that the guards had been robbed of pay increases; that the company was lying to the union throughout the life of the contract and "no doubt the Saginaw men will file criminal charges. Somebody may go to jail!"

The company filed unfair labor practice charges, but the NLRB regional director found that the leaflets had been circulated by an employee of the company, not by an official or agent of the union, and refused to issue a complaint. Meantime, the plaintiff filed suit in a U.S. district court for libel under State law for $1 million in damages. Federal jurisdiction was based on diversity of citizenship.

The district court dismissed the action on the ground that the Board had exclusive jurisdiction over the matter, and that such conduct arguably constituted an unfair labor practice under section 8(b) of the NLRA. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court pointed out that the issue involved is "the extent to which the National

Labor Relations Act . . . supersedes State law" relative to libels published during labor disputes. Relying primarily upon the rule established in San Diego Trades Council v. Garmon, which held that States may retain jurisdiction "where the activity regulated was a merely peripheral concern of the Labor Management Relations Act . . . or where the regulated conduct touched interest so deeply rooted in local feeling and responsibility that, in the absence of compelling Congressional direction, we could not infer that Congress had deprived the States of the power to act." The Court also cited its own decision in Plumbers Union v. Borden 3 that where there is an absence of overriding State interest in a dispute arguably subject to the LMRA, State courts must defer to the competence of the Board.

In view of these considerations, the Court held that in this case the exercise of State jurisdiction would be merely a peripheral concern of the LMRA, "provided it is limited to redressing libel published with [malice]," and that there was "an overriding State interest" in this case which called for recognition of State law. In explaining why the Board should not have exclusive jurisdiction under these circumstances, the Court said:

While the Board might find that an employer or union violated § 8 by deliberately making false statements, or that the issuance of malicious statements during an organizing campaign had such a profound effect on the election as to require that it be set aside, it looks only to the coercive or misleading nature of the statements rather than their defamatory quality. The injury that the statements might cause to an individual's reputation-whether he be an employer or union official--has no relevance to the Board's function. . . . The Board can award no damages, impose no penalty, or give any other relief to the defamed individual.

*Prepared in the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor. The cases covered in this article represent a selection of the significant decisions believed to be of special interest. No attempt has been made to reflect all recent judicial and administrative developments in the field of labor law or to indicate the effect of particular decisions in jurisdictions in which contrary results may be reached based upon local statutory provisions, the existence of local precedents, or a different approach by the courts to the issue presented.

1 Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers Local 114 (U.S. Supreme Court, Feb. 21, 1966).

2359 U.S. 236; see also Monthly Labor Review, June 1959, pp. 954-955.

$ 373 U.S. 690; see also Monthly Labor Review, August 1963, pp. 954-955.

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