to buy a house When managements are not sufficiently enterprising and progressive, are unwilling to step up efficiency or extend markets through lower prices, then unions must press them to do so. It should be added here that the T.U.C. in publishing the team's report did not commit itself to the acceptance of all of its views and recommendations. One of the most remarkable advances made in this sector has been made by British Railways or, more precisely, the British Transport Commission, whose imputed inefficiency has reached the proportion of a national joke. A statement on 'planned productivity' in British Railways was issued some years ago by the British Railways Productivity Council. This body includes, besides the Commission members, President and Secretaries of the railway unions (N.U.R., A.S.L.E.F., T.S.S.A., etc.). The Council committed itself to the use of work study to increase efficiency and, when speaking of redundancy said : The Council believe that, provided there is a full understanding of the human problems that will arise and the need for appropriate incentives, planned productivity in British Railways can be to the advantage of all. The union problem is that of redundancy and it has to be accepted that temporary redundancy might have to be faced in individual cases if productivity is to be increased. The Council consider that all practicable steps should be taken so that the number of workers becoming redundant (without alternative employment) because of planned productivity is kept to a minimum and that where redundancy does occur everything should be done reasonably possible to avoid hardship. ... It is interesting to record that much of the credit for this cooperative attitude by the railway unions should go to the leadership of Sir Brian Robertson, whose knowledge of, belief in, and enthusiasm for work study, gained both in the army and industry, prior to assuming his thorny crown as Chairman of the B.T.C., carried the day. This makes a disturbing but significant contrast with the British coalmining industry. Negotiations between the National Goal Board and the National Union of Mineworkers, representing a 600,000 membership, on the application of work study to incentives have consistently broken down. What must be said, in all fairness, is that deriving in most instances from the lead given by senior management in the fieldmethod study is being increasingly used by the National Coal Board for most purposes short of the fixing of financial rewards. The railways have still a long way to go. Only a small proportion of the payroll of threequarters of a million has been work studied, but it is a start. Already to quote one or two examples in this highly topical field £1,000,000 is being saved each year on permanentway maintenance. Under the old and traditional working method a sevenman gang saw to 120 sleepers each day. By the application of common sense that is basic to work study waiting time was eliminated and today fiveman gangs manage to reach an output of 180 sleepers a day. homemoney to purchasehow