BBC v. MUSICIANS' UNION!

New Zealand Listener, Volume 20, Issue 504, 18 February 1949, Page 31

BBC v. MUSICIANS' UNION!

(From

Our Own Correspondent

LONDON, JANUARY 22. ‘T HE report of the independent committee set up by the Ministry of Labour after the dispute between the BBC and the Musicians’ Union last year has just been. published. It criticises both sides for their handling of their affairs and suggests that a joint standing body, with scope and functions clearly defined, would improve their relations. 5 The committee awards a 10s. increase in the scale of minimum fees for casual studio work and calls on the union to lift its ban on relays of outside broadcasts; these, it says, were for over 20 years an essential part of broadcasting (for some months there have been none at all). The BBC has offered to pay 25s. per musician for such relays, and the committee in effect orders the Union to accept that. It is double the previous payment. To insist on the ban "entirely overlooks the interest of the listening public." The report crificises the Union, for having "afterthoughts" (claims put in

for the hearing, which had not previously been put to the BBC) and the BBC, for blustering when the dispute was going on (making a public announcement at the wrong moment and complaining of duress when it had entered into a voluntary agreement with the Union after hard bargaining). The BBC had wanted to increase its broadcasts of gramophone records from 28 to 32 hours a week; the gramophone companies had agreed to 35 hours, ‘and the report says this would serve public interests without prejudice to the musicians.