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Prepare for 10% pay claims from drivers...
Page 12
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* by Emma Penny
Operators should prepare for pay claims of 10% or more this year with drivers demanding the same pay for an average 48-hour week as they currently receive for an average 62-hour week.
Those are two key findings in the annual survey of pay and conditions for distribution workers carried out by the Road Haulage Association and Income Data Services. The report also highlighted widespread difficulties recruiting and retaining HGV drivers, and heavy reliance on overtime.
Carried out In September this year, the survey covers 114 companies, employing almost 30,000 people. it found that 60% of these firms had problems recruiting and retaining drivers.
Problems were most acute in the SouthWest, with 85% of respondents reporting problems, and TO% believing the situation had worsened. Ruth Pott, head of employment at the RHA, says this came as a surprise: 1 would have expected the hotspot to be in London and the South-East, specifically round Heathrow, but that's not what we found," But, as In the previous two surveys, 60% of companies said the shortage of qualified drivers was responsible for the high driver turnover. Low rates of pay and long working hours were also cited as reasons by more than 40% of firms. However, long working hours do swell drivers' pay packets, with overtime for CeE drivers averaging an extra £112 a week. More than 80% of firms said their drivers normally worked more than 48 hours a week.
But, when the Working Time Directive comes Into force in 2005 drivers will be limited to an average of 48 hours a week. The Transport and General Workers Union has already launched a campaign to ensure its members receive the same pay for a 48-hour week as they do for a 60-hour week (CM 31 Oct-6 Hove Poll says employers can only pay what they can afford. But once the WTD comes In drivers won't be able to afford losing all their overtime payments—and they won't be able to work for anyone else to make up the difference.
Poll adds that current wage rises of 10-15%—which 25% of firms said they were awarding—come as "no great surprise": "Employers have found they are losing drivers and so are matching pay to help retain them, They have been giving pay rises in January but are having to evaluate their position again In May or June."