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December 1977

A man called Latham

Michael Latham stands out in the House of Commons by the sheer single-mindedness of his watchdog activities on behalf of the industry. He has declared a one-man war on the inefficient and wasteful, on administrative inertia and bureaucratic whitewash. His weapons are written questions; his technique is to throw them in clusters, moving in after the explosions have died down to make sure that he has hit his target.

Take 27 October. Latham, 35, had 10 written questions down for answer, ranging from design guides to multi-occupation, and from research studies to administrative overlap. They are questions that galvanize civil servants into frantic search. They reverberate through official committees, administrative branches, government agencies and far-flung embassies.

Casual warning

Strong opposition by employers to the payment of fall-back money for unemployed building workers is likely to make final agreement on a system of registers for the industry impossible when the Construction Industry Management Board meets on Monday.

This was expected to be the last meeting of the board before it puts up proposals for decasualisation of the industry to construction minister Reg Freeson.

Safety-first tiler sacked

A “safety conscious” roof tiler was sacked because he made a nuisance of himself, it was claimed at an industrial tribunal at Shrewsbury.

He called in a factories inspector when he was not satisfied with safety measures on a housing site in Wrexham where he worked, and was dismissed a few days later after he refused to load tiles on a roof because, he claimed, it was not a craftsman’s job and there was a labourer available to do it.

He refused to work on the site unless scaffolding was provided.

His manager gave him a verbal warning for not complying with instructions and a final written warning in July.

The man then agreed to work on the site but was involved in an accident, which led to him taking two days off work. He refused to work on the site again without a labourer and brought in a factory inspector who found that there was no case to answer. The man was then sacked.

However, the tribunal rejected his claim for unfair dismissal. It said it would give its reasons later.

The sound of lapping luxury

Despite the recession, Glynwed’s Vogue Bathrooms has struck an incomparably optimistic note by launching the four-poster bath.

This is not a joke: the bath has been made to order complete with dual controls, padded headrest and fluted columns.