‘Cashless pay, deductions from wages, and the repeal of the Truck Acts in Great Britain, 1945-1986’

ABSTRACT

This article examines the public debate between 1945 and 1986 in Great Britain over repealing the Truck Acts. Advocates of repeal hoped that it might encourage workers to accept wage payment by cheque or electronic transfer, which most manual workers opposed. This article will evaluate the arguments that the Truck Acts, which protected employees’ right to be paid in the current coin of the realm and defended them against unfair deductions from wages, had become ‘obsolete’ and hindered contractual arrangements that could be beneficial. The 1986 Wages Act, which repealed all of the Truck Acts and the 1960 Payment of Wages Act, passed over the strong objections of the TUC and a number of organizations that provided legal advice to the poor. The 1986 Act was introduced to allow employers to impose convenient cashless pay. Like much of the legislation under the Thatcher government, this Act was sold as the repeal of outdated and burdensome regulations, which would allow businesses to lower costs and become more competitive. However, I will argue that the repeal of the Truck Acts removed some very real protections for workers, and left employees more exposed to unfair deductions from wages than before.

KEYWORDS:

• Labour history
• wages
• Trade Union Congress
• Trades Unions history
• labour laws
• minimum wage
• contract of employment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. For examples of trade union resistance to non-cash wage payments, see: ‘Brighhouse Trades and Industrial Council to TUC, 18 June 1959,’ ‘Norwich Labour Party and Industrial Council to TUC, 2 July 1959,’ ‘Hastings and District Trades Council to TUC, 5 July 1959’ ‘Spalding and District Trades Council to TUC, 28 July 1959,’ ‘Leeds Trades Council to TUC, 4 August 1959,’ ‘Kent Federation of Trades Councils to TUC, 9 August 1959’ ‘Plumbing Trade Union to TUC, 11 August 1959,’ ‘Enginemen, Firemen, Medical and Electrical Workers, 17 August 1959,’ ‘National Union of Hosiery Workers to TUC, 27 August 1959,’ ‘Welwyn, Garden City, and District Trades Council, 5 March 1960,’ ‘Isle of Sheppey Trades Council to TUC, 13 May 1959,’ ‘Portsmouth Trades Council to TUC, 23 June 1959,’ ‘Association of Engineering and Shipbuilding Draughtsmen, 30 June 1959,’ MSS 292/192/1/1, Modern Record Centre, University of Warwick;.

2. Official title: ‘A Bill to make fresh provision with respect to the protection of workers in relation to the payment of wages; to make further provision with respect to wages councils; to restrict redundancy rebates to employers with less than ten employees and to abolish certain similar payments; and for connected purposes,’ [Hereafter, ‘Wages Bill’] (House of Commons, 30 January 1986) [Bill 70].

3. The bill would repeal the 1831, 1887, 1896 and 1940 Truck Acts, the 1874 Hosiery Manufacture (Wages) Act, the 1883 Payment of Wages in Public Houses Act, the 1894 and 1905 Coal Mines (Check Weigher) Acts, 1902 Shop Clubs Act, the 1919 Checkweighing in Various Industries Act, the 1960 Payment of Wages Act, Sections 12 and 13 of the 1887 Stannaries Act . Sections 12 to 14 of the 1887 Coal Mines Regulation Act, Section 51 of the 1954 Mines and Quarries Act, Sections 135 and 135A of the 1961 Factory Act.

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Christopher Frank

Christopher Frank is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Manitoba and the author of Master and Servant Law: Chartists, Trade Unions, Radical Lawyers and the Magistracy, 1840-1865 (Ashgate, 2010) and Workers, Unions and Payment in Kind: The Fight for Real Wages in Britain, 1820-1914 (Routledge, 2019).