Board of Trade and successors: Departmental Whitley Council: Minutes

The final report of the Committee on Relations between Employers and Employed (Cd 9153) under the chairmanship of John Henry Whitley was published in 1918 and this was followed in 1919 by the Report of the National Provisional Joint Committee on the Application of the Whitley Report to the Administrative Departments of the Civil Service (Cmd 198).

On 13 June 1919 the War Cabinet approved the adoption of the recommendations contained in the National Provisional Joint Committee's report and as a result Departmental Whitley Councils (DWCs) were set up.

The main purpose of the DWCs was that all matters affecting the conditions of service of staff in a department, and its functions, should be considered and, so far as practicable, determined by joint bodies comprising of members appointed by the head of the department (known as the Official Side) and members appointed by the associations or groups of associations having members employed in the department (known as the Staff Side). The scheme was based on the principle of representation by association and only those staff who were members of associations could obtain representation.

In October 1919 the Board of Trade stated the general objects of its own Whitley Council as being 'to secure the greatest measure of cooperation between the Administration, in its capacity as employer, and the general body of the staff in matters affecting the Department, with a view to increased efficiency in the Department combined with the well being of those employed; to provide machinery for dealing with grievances and generally to bring together the experience and different points of view respecting conditions of service within the Department.'

The first meeting of the Board of Trade DWC was held on March 5th 1920 and had a membership of 28 (14 Official Side and 14 Staff Side).