Testers stage token strikes
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GOODS vehicle testers in Salisbury are staging a series of one hour token stoppages in support of an 18 per cent pay claim which they say is due because of the more technical nature of the job.
Spokesman for the testers, Ray Pidgley told CM that the men were demanding new gradings and more holidays as well as the abandonment of a bonus scheme which they describe as "unsafe".
And Mr Pidgley has gained support from the Associated Union of Engineering Workers, which has banned the bonus scheme in the South Eastern Traffic Area.
Bonus
The bonus scheme operates on the number of axles tested by the men and demands that they test 23 axles a day. The engineering workers have decided that 18 is the maximum.
"Now that we are having these stoppages the department is issuing exemption notices to people who bring vehicles in to have them tested while we are on strike," said Mr Pidgley.
"This exemption lasts for three months and headquarters has been issuing exemptions for another nine months making a full year exemption," he said.
Dangerous
This situation means that between ten and 20 vehicles a week are being issued with exemptions when they are potentially dangerous, says Mr Pidgley, the men's Transport and General Workers Union shop steward.
This week the Department of Transport admitted that some exemptions had been issued "and we are not entirely happy with the situation but there is nothing else we can do while there is a national agreement in force," said a DTp spokesman.
"There is a national agree ment and there is negotiating machinery," said the spokesman, "and it would be impossible for the department to step outside the agreement. In any case we can't negotiate while action is continuing," he said.