Dock Work Regulation Act 1976

The National Dock Labour Board

Reconstitution of Board as body corporate

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• (1) On the appointed day the National Dock Labour Board constituted under the Dock Workers Employment Scheme 1967 is dissolved by virtue of this Act; and on that day there shall come into being a body corporate bearing the same name and having functions conferred by or under this Act.

• (2) The new Board shall consist of a chairman, a vice chairman and twelve other members, all appointed by the Secretary of State.

• (3) Of those other members eight shall be so appointed on the nomination or re-nomination of the National Joint Council for the Port Transport Industry, four being appointed to represent dock employers and four to represent dock workers.

• (4) The remaining four members of the Board, and the chairman and vice-chairman, shall be appointed by the Secretary of State after consultation with the National Joint Council, the Trades Union Congress and the Confederation of British Industry.

• (5) Part I of Schedule 1 to this Act has effect with respect to the National Dock Labour Board, its members, staff and administration; and Part II of that Schedule has effect with respect to the transfer of functions, property, etc. from the old Board to the new.

• (6) Where an enactment or instrument (statutory or other) passed or made before the appointed day refers to the National Dock Labour Board, it is to be read as referring, as from that day, to the new Board and not the old, except where the context otherwise requires.

General duty of the Board

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• (1) The Board, having regard to the public interest, shall keep under review such economic and industrial developments as appear to them to affect, or be likely to affect, the performance of work classified under this Act as dock work.

• (2) In the light of those developments they shall consider—

• (a) whether current classifications are satisfactory and, if not, the respects in which they could with advantage be altered;

• (b) what (if any) measures should be taken for improving co-operation between dock employers and dock workers and thereby the efficiency with which such work is performed.

• (3) They shall also keep under review—

• (a) the extent to which the skills, aptitudes and experience of dock workers are adequately deployed, having regard to the amount of such work that is available; and

• (b) the need (if any) to adjust the strength and disposition of the labour force ;

and they shall submit to the Secretary of State from time to time reports and proposals for action.

• (4) In formulating any such proposal, the Board shall examine—

• (a) methods of recruitment and training ;

• (b) in so far as they are of opinion that the labour force exceeds the foreseeable requirement, the ways in which it can be reduced or re-deployed, or other changes can be implemented, without avoidable hardship to the workers concerned; and

• (c) the probable cost to employers of implementing the proposal.

• (5) In respect of the matters mentioned above in this section, and cognate matters, the Board shall maintain regular consultation with the National Ports Council, and with others appearing to the Board to be concerned.

• (6) The Board are responsible for advising the Secretary of State from time to time in respect of those matters, as and when he may seek such advice or the Board think any aspect of them ought to be drawn to his attention; and the Board shall also make their advice available to other persons appearing to them to have an interest.

Finances of the Board

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• (1) The Board may borrow such sums as they require for performing their functions—

• (a) from the Secretary of State ; or

• (b) with the consent of the Secretary of State, or in accordance with any general authority given by him, from other persons;

and the Board shall not borrow money otherwise than under this subsection.

• (2) The aggregate amount outstanding by way of principal of—

• (a) money borrowed by the old Board for which the new Board is liable ; and

• (b) money borrowed by the new Board under this section,

shall not exceed £10 million or such greater amount not exceeding £30 million as may be specified by order of the Secretary of State; and no such order shall be made unless a draft of the order has been laid before the House of Commons and approved by resolution of that House.

• (3) The Secretary of State may lend to the Board any sums which they have power to borrow, and any such loans shall be repaid by the Board at such times, and in such manner, and interest on the loans shall be paid at such rates and at such times, as he may from time to time direct.

• (4) The Secretary of State may make such grants to the Board towards their expenses in pursuance of sections 6 to 10 of this Act (reports and recommendations on classification) as he may determine.

• (5) Anything done by the Secretary of State under this section requires the Treasury's approval.

New Dock Labour Scheme

Secretary of State to prepare new Scheme

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• (1) The Secretary of State shall as soon as may be—

• (a) prepare in draft, with a view to its being brought into force area by area, a new Dock Labour Scheme to replace the 1967 Scheme;

• (b) publish notice that the draft Scheme has been prepared, informing persons interested where they can obtain copies of the draft and giving them at least sixty days in which to make representations to him about it; and

• (c) after making such alterations (if any) as he thinks expedient in the light of representations so made, lay the draft before Parliament.

• (2) If the draft Scheme is approved by a resolution of each House, the Secretary of State may make orders bringing it into force (in the form of the draft) for areas designated by the orders, which areas are then to be known as dock labour scheme areas ; but the whole of any area so designated must be comprised within a definable dock area.

• (3) A definable dock area shall comprise any place in Great Britain which is within half a mile (in a direct line) of a harbour to which this Act applies or of the nearest harbour land adjacent to such a harbour.

• (4) For the purposes of this section, " harbour " and " harbour land " have the meanings assigned to them by section 57 of the Harbours Act 1964.

• (5) Any premises as to which the Board has reported under section 6 of this Act that work done there is dock work for the purposes of the 1967 Scheme as it applies in any port, or is so treated by custom and practice, are to be treated as part of the definable dock area which includes that port, if not otherwise falling to be so treated under subsection (3) above.

• (6) The Secretary of State may, if it appears to him necessary in the light of local circumstances affecting any particular definable dock area, by order extend that area (or, having made in relation to it any one or more previous orders under this subsection, further extend it) by directing the addition to it of any contiguous area.

• (7) An order shall not be made under subsection (6) in relation to a definable dock area unless a draft of the order has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of the House.

• (8) Schedule 2 to this Act has effect as to the steps which are to be taken by the Secretary of State before making an order under subsection (6) of this section; and where an order under the subsection is laid before Parliament in draft for the purposes of subsection (7) there shall be laid with it—

• (a) a statement by the Secretary of State certifying that Schedule 2 has been complied with ; and

• (b) where a public inquiry has been held, a copy of any report and recommendation made by the person who held the inquiry.

Objects of the new Scheme

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• (1) Subject to this section, the new Scheme may provide for any of the matters specified in Schedule 3 to this Act.

• (2) The Secretary of State shall frame the Scheme with a view—

• (a) to securing stability of employment for dock workers and the creation and maintenance of a permanent labour force of a size and composition appropriate for the efficient performance of dock work; and

• (b) to securing that, wherever the Scheme is in force and subject only to such exceptions as it may provide, dock work is done by registered dock workers and not otherwise.

• (3) For the purposes of subsection (2) above and for those of the new Scheme as it has effect in any area, " dock work " means the work of individuals (whether or not they are employed by an employer to do it) which, by reference to its description and the premises where it is done, is classified as dock work by an order made by the Secretary of State under section 11 of this Act and for the time being in force.

• (4) The work that may be classified is any which—

• (a) is done or to be done at premises in a definable dock area and is within Part I of Schedule 4 to this Act and not within Part II of that Schedule ; or

• (b) whether or not falling within paragraph (a) above, is reported by the Board to the Secretary of State under section 6 below as having been dock work for the purposes of the 1967 Scheme or been so treated by custom and practice.

• (5) Any dock workers' registers established by the Scheme may comprise both main registers and extension registers, and dock workers may under the Scheme be treated differently according to whether they are registered in the one kind of register or in the other; but the Scheme shall not include provision as to the circumstances in which, in the case of a dock worker on an extension register, his employment can be terminated, or as to his rights on termination of employment.

• (6) The Scheme shall not impose any obligations on dock employers who do not employ workers on classified work.

• (7) In respect of any of the matters specified in paragraphs 1 to 3 of Schedule 3 to this Act, the Scheme may require dock employers and dock workers to accept obligations arising under a specified collective agreement (as for the time being in force) although not themselves parties to the agreement; but this is subject to subsection (8) below.

• (8) The Scheme shall not include any provision on the following matters—

• (a) the membership or non-membership on the part of a worker of a trade union or of any particular trade union;

• (b) the recognition of trade unions by employers or employers' associations, or any other matter connected with machinery for collective bargaining ;

and where an employer recognises an independent trade union in respect of workers of his and there is a collective agreement, negotiated by him or on his behalf, with one or more trade unions including that trade union, which contains provisions regulating the terms and conditions of employment of those workers as to any of the matters mentioned in paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to this Act, nothing in the Scheme shall have the effect of requiring that employer to observe, in place of those provisions, the provisions of any other collective agreement.

• (9) Without prejudice to the above, the Scheme may—

• (a) include such incidental, transitional and commencement provisions as the Secretary of State thinks expedient; and

• (b) contain different provisions for different circumstances and combinations of circumstances.

• (10) The Secretary of State may from time to time make orders amending the new Scheme (either generally or in relation to one or more dock labour scheme areas), or altering the boundaries of any such area; and the powers of this section include power to consolidate the whole or any part of the Scheme as amended (with transitional provisions and savings, if any).

• (11) Where the Secretary of State has it in mind to make an order under subsection (10) above, he shall publish notice as to the proposed content of the order, informing persons interested where they can obtain copies of the draft and giving them at least sixty days in which to make representations to him about it; and the order shall not be made unless a draft of it has been laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House.

Arrangements for classifying dock work

Review of what is now dock work

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• (1) Within the period of six months beginning with the appointed day the Board shall report to the Secretary of State, separately in respect of each of the ports where the 1967 Scheme is in force, how at that port the Scheme is currently applied as respects the descriptions of work which are for its purposes dock work or are so treated by custom and practice.

• (2) The Board's report in each case shall specify—

• (a) every category of such work done in the port, in the period of twelve months ending with the appointed day, in whose case there were employed to do it either—

• (i) registered dock workers, or

• (ii) with permission of the local dock labour board under clause 10 of the 1967 Scheme, persons other than registered dock workers; and

• (b) in respect of each category of work, the premises at which it is or was done.

• (3) Copies of the Board's report shall be given—

• (a) to all those who are, or have been at any time in the period of twelve months ending with the appointed day, employers of workers on work of any such category as is specified in subsection (2) above;

• (b) to any trade union which is, or at any time in that period was, recognised by an employer in respect of any such workers ; and

• (c) to any other person appearing to the Board to be concerned with the subject matter of the report.

• (4) A report by the Board under this section may be referred back to them by the Secretary of State, with his observations, if he thinks it possible that they have misdirected themselves in relation to any aspect of it; and—

• (a) the Board shall then within one month of the reference back report further to the Secretary of State, taking his observations into account; and

• (b) subsection (3) above also applies to this further report.

• (5) As soon as may be after receiving a report (or further report) by the Board under this section relating to any port (but not until all those mentioned in subsection (3) above have had at least a month in which to make representations), the Secretary of State shall prepare, with a view to making and bringing into force, an order or orders—

• (a) specifying (in such terms as he thinks appropriate) the descriptions of work referred to in the report, in each case by reference to the premises at which the work is or has been done ; and

• (b) classifying any such description of work (so far as done at those premises) as dock work for the purposes of the new Scheme.

• (6) In this section " port" means any one of the individual ports listed in Appendix 1 to the 1967 Scheme, together with any area as to which the Board is satisfied that it has for purposes of that Scheme's application been treated as belonging to the port.

Loading and unloading operations

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• (1) This section applies to any work of loading cargo into ships or unloading cargo from ships, other than work done in a port where the 1967 Scheme is in force; and for this purpose " cargo " and " ship " mean the same as in Schedule 4 to this Act and " port" means the same as in section 6 above.

• (2) If during the period of one month beginning with the appointed day, any such work is done at premises situated in a definable dock area by individuals employed to do it, then subject to subsection (3) below the employer shall within the period of three months beginning with that day send to the Board a written statement specifying the work and giving with respect to it the additional particulars mentioned below.

• (3) The obligation to send a statement under this section—

• (a) arises only in respect of work which is done in the course of the employer's business, and for which he is paid (otherwise than by an associated company of his); and

• (b) does not fall on any body corporate established as mentioned in paragraph 9 of Schedule 4 to this Act (nationalised undertakings) or any subsidiary of such a body, except—

• (i) the British Transport Docks Board and its subsidiaries,

• (ii) the British Waterways Board and its subsidiaries, in respect of work done for the purposes of the Board's functions under section 10(1)(b) of the Transport Act 1962 (provision of port facilities);

and no such statement is required in respect of the loading or unloading of any of the substances mentioned in paragraph 15 of Schedule 4 to this Act.

• (4) The additional particulars required in a statement under this section are—

• (a) the address or description of the premises where the work of loading or unloading cargo was done ;

• (b) the name and business address of the employer;

• (c) the minimum and maximum number of individuals who were employed on the work during the month beginning with the appointed day; and

• (d) the name of any trade union which is concerned with the classification of the work ;

and a trade union is so concerned if the employer recognises it in respect of workers employed to do (at those premises or elsewhere) any work within Part I of Schedule 4 to this Act and not within Part II of that Schedule.

• (5) Where a person is required by subsection (2) above to send the statement there referred to, it shall be an offence for him—

• (a) to fail to send the statement within the three months there mentioned; or

• (b) to include in a statement furnished in purported compliance with the subsection any matter which he knows to be false or does not believe to be true ;

and a person guilty of an offence under this subsection shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than £400.

• (6) On receiving the statement the Board shall—

• (a) forthwith inform any trade union named in it of the contents of the statement and the effect of this section and sections 10 and 11 below and invite the union to make representations within one month; and