Records of the National Dock Labour Corporation and National Dock Labour Board

In order to regularise employment on the docks during the Second World War the government introduced a Dock Labour (Compulsory Registration) Order in June 1940, which set up committees, comprising representatives of workers' and employers' organizations, in every port to supervise the registration of port workers. The registration scheme introduced under this order frequently replaced existing port labour registration schemes operating under the auspices of the National Joint Council for Dock Labour. These were administered on a day-to-day basis by individual local port labour joint committees of employers and workers. A secretarial and clerical service was provided by the Ministry of Labour.

Subsequent to the Dock Labour (Compulsory Regulation) Order, two schemes were set up to increase labour mobility within the ports and to provide all registered men with a basic weekly rate of pay. Of these, one was set up by the Ministry of War Transport and covered the Merseyside and Clydeside port workers. To cover the other ports, the National Dock Labour Corporation was set up under the Essential Work (Dock Labour) Order 1941, as a limited company whose chairman and financial director were appointed by the Minister of Labour. By June 1941 the Corporation was employing almost 44,000 dock workers.

At the end of the war these schemes were adapted for peacetime purposes. Under the Dock Workers (Regulation of Employment) Act 1946, the Minister of Labour created the National Dock Labour Scheme by statutory order (SR and 0 1189/1947). The scheme provided for registers of dock workers and port employers to be drawn up in all scheduled ports. All registered dockers were entitled to a guaranteed minimum weekly wage as long as they complied with the scheme's provisions by attending regularly for work.

The scheme was to be administered by the National Dock Labour Board, a body consisting of a chairman, a vice chairman, four representatives from the workers' side of the industry and four from the employers' side. The Minister of Labour was given the authority to appoint two further independent members, but this option was never exercised. All board members were ministerial appointees.

Authority for day to day operations of the scheme was delegated to local boards. These local boards, composed of equal numbers of employers and union representatives, supervised the register of dock workers in each port. They also performed the function of an employment exchange for casual men, sending them where they were needed. A registered docker could be employed only by a registered port employer and, without special dispensation, a port employer could hire only registered men. Local boards were invested with disciplinary powers over both employers and port workers.

The scheme was abolished under the Dock Work Act 1989.