Bank brunt

change-over On December 8 they WITH LESS than six weeks to go to DecimalDay, Britain's bank employees are calling for strong action to back their claim for adequate ity to justi the 'changeover' pay.

At their London press conference yesterday, which detailed the banks' massive two-day decimal switch, representatives of the British Banking Association refrained from commenting on the situation.

Their comments on other issues facing workers after D-Day were just as noncommittal.

Mr Brian Sharp, chairman of the banks' decimalization working party, said that 'there is no reason to disagree with the Decimal Currency Board' that there should be no general price rises.

Brian Sharp, chairman of the Costs banks' decimalization working party. Would the banks' £8m changeover cost be passed on? "This is difficult to quantify,' we were told. dary Fund Metrication was passed off as 'a separate problem'.

The bankers are remaining starts It £55 tight-lipped about the real meaning of decimalization.

Their stand against the bank We need all the support employees today reveals more of. their class intentions than ing an extra €1,000 which is a mountain of explanatory needed for organizing the Rally. Help us by collecting However, a National Union of Bank Employees spokesthe January Appeal Fund man told Workers Press: weekly collections at your "There is a great deal of factory or place of work. feeling about it. There have Raise support in your trade been calls for further action.' union branch. Carry the From closing time on Wedcampaign far and wide nesday, February 10. until hundreds of hous mobilize throughout the labour move 9.30 a.m. on D-Day, February ment. Post all your dona- 15, bank employees will be tions to : working all-out to clear all Esd work and complete the changeover. 186a Clapham High Street, The main work will fall on London, SW4. Thursday and Friday, FebPAGE prematul

deathreport JUST UNDER one third of all men aged 35 to 64 who died in 1968 were cigarette smokers who died prematurely, according to the Royal College of Physicians' latest report on smoking.

In that year 99,082 men in that age group died, but if there had been no smoking, ,31,000 would still have been alive.

At least half these excess

ruary 11 and 12, when banks will be closed to general public.

Throughout the Wednesday night, staff at London's clearing houses will be dealing with six million cheques and interGierek will give a detailes bank transactions in an effort to complete the last Esd paperwork by 10 a.m. the following day.

Last July NUBE claimed a flat £50 payment for all staff Gierek will also have to on top of overtime pay, and La £75 payment for those not working overtime, including managerial staff.

Following the banks' rejection in October, a new claim was submitted for overtime to be paid at double-time throughout February. manThe new leadership can- agerial staff receiving the maximum weekend rate of 56s an hour. rL:- -1-:- Ihis claim was also rejected. homeless. from stagnation Following the Kremlin's raising living standards in This was essential for the THE PRICES of new houses have doubled over the past ten years, according to a report just published by the Building Societies Association.

The average price of a new house is put at £5,206, or £338 more than a year ago. At the same time, the decreasing number of houses being built inflates the prices of both new and old houses even further.

Builders predict that the numbér of houses completed nationally in mid-1971 will be nearly 20 per cent down on the 1968 figure.

The unpublished Greve Report is believed to show that Inner London alone has 7,600 people officially homéless and 1,300,000 living in such depressed conditions that they also should be classed as