Drivers fight pay cut
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by Grant Prior • More than 1,000 delivery drivers at British Bakeries are threatening to strike over plans to slash their wages by up to £200 a week.
United Road Transport Union leaders will stage a ballot for industrial action next week at the firm's 22 bakeries throughout the country.
The row has erupted over plans to end commission paid to drivers who also act as salespeople on their daily rounds.
British Bakeries want to see 500 sales/delivery staff change to drivers only of the 1,400-strong fleet which is liveried with brand names including Mothers Pride, Champion, Mighty White and Hovis.
"This could mean people losing anything between £50 and £200 a week out of their wage packets," says URTU assistant general secretary Nigel Rogers.
British Bakeries spokesman Anthony Spiro says the current arrangements are a throwback to the days of delivering to small shops. "The market has changed completely now and bulk deliveries to supermarkets are much more common," he says. "Drivers delivering to superstores are still paid commission as if they secured the order, when in fact it is often done through a central sales operation."
Union chiefs are also upset that British Bakeries wants to conduct the restructuring negotiations on a regional basis and thrash out deals at individual plants. The bakery in Birmingham has been earmarked as the first site to switch to the new working methods. British Bakeries: plans to stop URTU want paying sales commission.
the talks back on a national level and has the backing of all the shop stewards to hold a ballot for a one-day-a-week strike. "We don't mind changing people's job titles because that is the way the industry is going, but you can't start taking great chunks of money out of people's pay packets. The firm is not prepared to consider the individual hardship this would cause," says Rogers.
British Bakeries' parent company Rank Hovis McDougall was bought by conglomerate Tomkins for £935m in December 1992. Since then rationalisation plans have shut four bakeries, at Dundee, Croydon, Exeter and Hackbridge, with the loss of 1,000 jobs.
Spiro says there are no plans for any redundancies among delivery drivers as part of the restructuring. "We are simply looking to separate the roles of drivers and salespeople," he says. "There will be no commission paid unless drivers actually sell our products to stores."
The industrial action ballot will be open for two weeks; the result is expected on 16 February.
C Around 20 drivers' jobs hang in the balance at Allied Bakeries' Sunblest factory in Brighton. It is expected to cease production within two months; the fleet based there could be cut from 38 to 18.