This is about the Maritime Board in the United Kingdom. For the Board in the Philippines, see National Seamen Board

National Seamen Board

The National Seamen Board is the committee that was created by the Labor Code of the Philippines, through Article 20 of Presidential Decree No. 422...

.

The National Maritime Board was a bilateral board governing wages and working practices in the British shipping industry.

It was founded in November 1917 against a backdrop of strike action amongst seafarers and was originally intended as a purely wartime measure to facilitate wage negotiations in a period of rapid inflation. It built upon the union-employer relationship that had emerged during the war years and brought together representatives of the Shipping Federation

Shipping Federation

For the Shipping Federation of British Columbia, see British Columbia Maritime Employers' Association.The Shipping Federation was an association of employers in the shipping industry. It was formed in 1890 in response to the London Dock Strike of 1889 and the successes of the National Union of...

, the National Union of Seamen

National Union of Seamen

The National Union of Seamen was the principal trade union of merchant seafarers in the United Kingdom from the late 1880s to 1990. In 1990, the union amalgamated with the National Union of Railwaymen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers .- The National Amalgamated...

 and the National Union of Ship's Stewards

National Union of Ship's Stewards

The National Union of Ship's Stewards, Cooks, Butchers and Bakers was the principal trade union for service personnel serving aboard British merchant ships between 1909 and 1921....

, as well as some smaller unions in the industry, but allowing the British Seafarers' Union

British Seafarers' Union

The British Seafarers' Union was a trade union which organised sailors and firemen in the British ports of Southampton and Glasgow between 1911/1912 and 1922...

 only local representation. In 1919 the board was re-established as a permanent body and set about establishing national wage rates for all grades, the first time such rates had been enforced. Aylmer Vallance

Aylmer Vallance

Gerald Aylmer Vallance , born George Alexander Gerald Vallance, was a Scottish newspaper editor.Born in Partick, Vallance studied at Fettes College in Edinburgh and Balliol College, Oxford, before serving with the Somerset Light Infantry and the General Staff of the 2nd Indian Division during World...

was appointed as the board's General Secretary.

In the 1920s, the board imposed a series of wage reductions with the support of the National Union of Seamen. The Ship's Stewards Union opposed the first of these reductions in 1921, and its members were locked out. At this time, the board also became embroiled in controversies over the policy of Joint Control introduced by the NUS and Shipping Federation. This arrangement aimed to ensure that seafarers could only gain employment if in possession of a form endorsed by both the union and the employers' organisation. It was allegedly widely used to force out of employment members of rival unions, communists, and other 'agitators'.