Some Aspects of Nationalised Coal Industry

  • S. K. Saxena
Chapter

Abstract

The Coal Industry Nationalisation Act1 received the Royal Assent on July 12, 1946, and it was left to the Minister of Fuel and Power to decide on the date on which the industry was to be transferred to public ownership. The task was enormous and complex. A number of factors had to be taken into consideration before the final decision could be made. A change-over would have meant the cessation of activities by the numerous mining companies which were functioning in different parts of the country and a suitable organisation had to be evolved which could replace the existing one. Though activities in this direction had been started before the Vesting Day and the Board’s members had been meeting frequently as an organising committee, the new organisation was far from complete. About 1500 collieries and ancillary undertakings employing a total number of about 800,000 persons were to be looked after. The Government’s view was that any delay in the take-over of the industry would only result in prolonging the period of uncertainty. Accordingly the Minister of Fuel and Power informed the House of Commons that the Vesting Date would be 1st January 1947. On that date the industry passed into public ownership.

Keywords

Coal Industry Public Ownership Clerical Staff Joint Consultation National Coal 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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References

  1. 1.
    Coal Industry Nationalisation Act., 1946, 9 & 10 GEO. 6. CH. 59.Google Scholar
  2. 1.
    For characteristic features of Public Corporation, see: Problems of Nationalized Industry, W. A. Robson, (Ed.) Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1952, pp. 27-32.Google Scholar
  3. 1.
    op. cit., Sec. 2 (3).Google Scholar
  4. 1.
    N.C.B., Report and Accounts for 1948, pp. 113–114.Google Scholar
  5. 1.
    N.C.B., Some Notes on the British Coal Industry, p. 3.Google Scholar
  6. 1.
    A “District” is “an area of the mine containing, usually, a working face and forming a district section of the ventilation system, with its own “intake” and “returns” roads”. Coal Mining, Published by the N.C.B., p. 14.Google Scholar
  7. 1.
    “Winding Time” means the time taken to get a whole shift from the surface to the place of work underground. It takes, generally speaking, about 30 minutes.Google Scholar
  8. 1.
    Also see Chapter V, the Officials’ Disputes (1952).Google Scholar
  9. 1.
    Report of a Court of Inquiry into a dispute between the National Coal Board and the National Union of Colliery Winding Enginemen, H.M.S.O., 1948, p. 13.Google Scholar
  10. 1.
    Coal Industry Nationalisation Act, 1946, Sec. 46(1) (a) and (b).Google Scholar
  11. 2.
    On this point, see, The Framework of Joint Consultation, The Acton Society Trust, 1952, pp. 2-3.Google Scholar
  12. 3.
    Third Report of the Board of Investigation Into Wages and Machinery for determining Wages and Conditions of Employment in the Coal-Mining Industry, H.M.S.O., 1943. For earlier period, see, Ian G. Sharp, Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration, Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1950, Part I, Chap. II.Google Scholar
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    Third Report of the Board of Investigation, op. cit., p. 2.Google Scholar
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    For Conciliation Agreements with workers in Coke and By-Product Industry and with the British Association of Colliery Management, see Memorandum of Agreements, Arbitration Awards and Decisions, Recommendations and Interpretations Relating to National Questions Concerning Wages and Conditions of Employment in the Coalmining Industry of Great Britain, National Coal Board, Part III, 1st January to 31st December, 1948, pp. 274-303 and 360-378 respectively. The N.C.B. has done a useful service by bringing together in bound. volumes copies of all Agreements, Arbitration awards, etc., from 1940 onwards.Google Scholar
  15. 1.
    A very interesting account of the Pit Production Committees will be found in: W. H. B. Court, Coal, History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Civil Series, Edited by W. K. Hancock, H.M.S.O., and Longmans, Green and Co., 1951, pp. 317-323.Google Scholar
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    ibid., p. 322.Google Scholar
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  18. 1.
    Our description is based largely on the 1st Annual Report of the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation, 1952, issued from their registered office, 5, Hobart Place, London.Google Scholar
  19. 2.
    For the text of the Agreement, see, N.C.B., Memorandum of Agreements, etc., Part VI, 1st January to 31st December, 1951, pp. 162-170.Google Scholar
  20. 3.
    ibid., clause 2.Google Scholar
  21. 1.
    ibid., clause 3.Google Scholar
  22. 1.
    International Labour Office, Wartime Transference of Labour in Great Britain, Montreal, 1943, p. 41.Google Scholar
  23. 2.
    Cmd. 6920, Table 13, quoted in W.H.B. Court, op. cit., p. 297.Google Scholar
  24. 1.
    The term “Ring Fence” implied that when a worker had been in the industry for three months, he could not leave without the permission of the Minister of Labour, though he was free to move from one colliery to another.Google Scholar
  25. 1.
    Plan for Coal issued by the N.C.B., p. 1.Google Scholar
  26. 2.
    N.C.B., Report and Accounts for 1951, p. 230.Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands 1955

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  • S. K. Saxena

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