INTERNATIONAL
ICI Offers Worker Productivity Plan Unions approve trial scheme to boost productivity by reorganizing manpower use, raising wages Salaries and working conditions of blue-collar workers in Britain's chemical industry should undergo a revolutionary change if the trial scheme that Imperial Chemical Industries is launching proves successful. The company, with the cooperation of the unions involved, has drawn up a plan that could raise production workers' salaries by some 10 r/c and give them white-collar status. Additional benefits to the workers: • A stable income in the form of an annual salary, paid weekly. • Better sick pay, bonus, and vacation arrangements. • A full month's notice before termination of employment. ICI's move is in line with the "Joint Statement of Intent on Productivity" signed last December by the Labor government, the Trades Union Congress, and four representatives of employers associations. There is, however, no direct government pressure on ICI to get the plan going. Greater productivity is ICI's primary aim. As a company spokesman
says: "We've got to improve our competitiveness in the world market if we are to grow, or even survive, and boosting productivity is one logical answer." ICI management has been carrying on behind-the-scenes discussions with union officials since last May. The talks covered possible ways to upgrade efficiency by changing operating methods and work practices. The plan that has emerged will go into effect at four of the company's sites next January. It will involve some 4000 workers. If, after 12 to 18 months, the plan seems workable, it will be extended to all of ICI's 56,000 manual workers (laborers) in Britain. Otherwise, it will be scrapped. The four locations selected for the experiment are the olefins works of the heavy organic chemicals division at Wilton, Yorkshire; the agricultural division's sulfate and nitrate operations at Billingham, Co. Durham; the Mond division's vinyl chloride plant at Hillhouse, Lancashire; and the plastics division's polyvinyl chloride plants, also at Hillhouse.
AGREEMENT. ICI's personnel manager, J. Rhodes (second from left), with trade union and ICI representatives, announces agreement between ICI and trade unions over manpower utilization and payment structure 60
C&EN
NOV.
1, 1 9 6 5
ICI management selected these plant sites for evaluating the scheme because they represent a fair crosssection of the company's activities. They also cover different geographical regions. The essential feature of the plan is t a use manpower more efficiently by giving each worker a wider area of responsibility. Broadening job responsibility should lead to greater interchangeability among different craftsmen and probably even between craftsmen and manual workers. A simple example: If, in the course of removing a piece of equipment, a fitter has to dismantle an electric plug, he can do it himself without having to wait for an electrician to come and do it for him. Revolution. There are some revolutionary features in the plan, as far as the U.K. work practices go. For example, skilled workers will be expected to operate plants "in appropriate circumstances." Both skilled and general workers can come under supervision of men of any background. Semiskilled (apprenticed or general workers) can lend support to skilled workers. And production operators (those working directly on the plant) will be expected to perform some of the less complicated jobs that skilled workers would normally cany out. To implement the plan, the number of salary grades has been reduced to eight (from the 22 grades now in force). Annual pay for a grade 1 job will range between $1820 and $2020, for a grade 8 job between $2770 and $3080. Jobs (and pay) will be assessed in terms of intelligence, personality, physical requirements, acquired skills, and knowledge. ICI and the unions have worked up a detailed job assessment formula based on the description and requirement of the job. The formula brings into account any special factors (such as training, experience, and initiative) of the individual being assessed. A team of four to seven trained assessors will interview the men on the job in the presence of the shop steward. The worker's pay will reflect his score in the evaluation. Periodic assessment will give a man the chance of a pay raise within the same salary grade or a transfer into a higher grade. The company has guaranteed, for those involved in the trial, to neither reduce any worker's take-home pay from its present level nor to lay off anybody.
When you buy Lindsay- Rare Earths
. . . you get more than product
more than 99.999% purities
you get men who know Rare Earths We're not just order takers. With Lindsay rare earths and ultra high purities might work for you? A few you get more than the industry's fullest product line. minutes of talking with our special products people You get the services of our Special Products Group- might bring you years closer to zeroing in on the men who know rare earths—have an intimate knowl application of rare earths in your development pro edge of their properties—have worked with customer gram. When Lindsay rare earths become a part of problems for years. They produce separated rare your research, so does the experience and practical earth oxides and compounds, as well as anhydrous application knowledge of the people who produce chlorides and fluorides from 95% to 99.999% purity them. And that's a hard combination to beat! Write (yttrium to 99.9999%) with respect to rare earth and or call the RARE EARTH (LINDSAY) DIVISION, West yttrium content. Like to see how these high purities Chicago, Illinois 60185. 231-0760 (area code 312) •TRADEMARK AP&CC
TRONA
American Potash & Chemical Corporation
LANTHANUM · CERIUM · PRASEODYMIUM · NEODYMIUM · SAMARIUM · EUROPIUM · GADOLINIUM · TERBIUM · DYSPROSIUM · HOLMIUM · ERBIUM · THULIUM · LUTETIUM · YTTRIUM
C &ΕΝ
61
MANAGEMENT
PURCHASIN6
SOMETHING NEW FOR EVERYONE! DON'T MISS THE CHEM SHOW
1 2 3
NEW PRODUCTS The best in the industry from over 500 manufacturers of process equipment, materials handling and packaging equipment, chemicals and raw materials, laboratory equip* ment and supplies, control instruments, automation, etc.
NEW METHODS Don't lag behind. Learn about the new techniques that have been developed that can apply to your operations...methods that will help you meet today's intensively competitive con ditions in the chemical industry.
NEW IDEAS How to cut costs, increase production, improve your prod ucts. Hundreds of engineers, representing every area of activity in the field, are ready to discuss your problems and suggest ideas that will help solve them. See that ALL your departments visit the show
3 0 t h EXPOSITION O F ι C H E M I C A L INDUSTRIES NEW YORK COLISEUM
NOV. 2 9 t h - D E C . 3 r d
MANAGEMENT: INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION CO., 200 PARK AVE., NEW YORK, N.Y. 10017
62
C&EN
N O V . 1, 1 9 6 5
The surprising thing is that the union officials have come to the agree ment in the first place. The next step, and perhaps the stickiest, will be for them to translate the idea to their union members. The unions involved are Amalgamated Engineering Union, Transport and General Workers' Union, National Union of Municipal and General Workers, and Electrical Trade Union. Other U.K. chemical companies be sides ICI are also working on new la bor schemes. Shell Chemical Co. is in an advanced stage of negotiation both with union officials and the work ers at its Carrington petrochemical complex near Manchester. The com pany hopes to raise pay in exchange for abandonment of restrictive prac tices on the part of the workers. Another industry involved in a sim ilar scheme is the Electricity Council, with 133,000 workers throughout the U.K. The agreement here is well along toward completion. Esso Pe troleum has also had such an agree ment with 2000 workers at its Fawley refinery since 1960 and signed another with 120 workers at Milford Haven earlier this year.
Courtalds and ICI Will Expand in Fibers Man-made fiber capacity in the U.K. is again moving up. The two largest British companies in the field, Courtaulds and ICI Fibres, have announced expansion plans. Courtaulds is putting in a 20% ex pansion for Courtelle acrylic fiber at its plant at Grimsby, Lincolnshire. When completed late in 1967, the ex pansion will give the company a ca pacity of 100 million pounds a year for the fiber. Courtaulds is the only acrylic fiber maker in Great Brit ain. ICI Fibres will double its Terylene polyester fiber capacity at Kilroot, Northern Ireland, by 1968. The com pany has a combined annual capacity of 25 million pounds for Terylene and Ulstron polypropylene fiber there. Terylene makes up the bulk of the output by far. Capacity of polyester fiber at ICI Fibres' two plants at Wilton, Yorkshire, now stands at 100 million pounds per year. The expan sion of the plant in Northern Ireland should give the company a capacity of more than 140 million pounds of the fiber a year.
