Cash plea for crane drivers
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by David Craik NI The Government is being urged to ease the financial burden of mobile crane drivers paying for class-C HGV training out of their wages to save their jobs.
Alex Low, managing director of crane hire business Hewden Stuart, believes that the Government should provide grants to enable drivers to cover their training costs, which he puts at over £500 each.
From the beginning of 1999, mobile crane drivers must have a class-C HGV driving licence. Currently anyone can drive cranes on a standard full car licence (CM 13-19 February).
Low says his industry has been lobbying for the grants for some time. Due to the Government's failure to provide the grants, he says many of the companies in the sector are now asking drivers to pay all or part of the fees themselves.
Hewden Stuart is asking its drivers to pay 50% of the training costs by deductions from their wages over two years.
"We have reached an unhappy compromise with the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union over this," adds Low. "Both sides are being financially penalised, we are both in a no-win situation. The move has brought a mixed reaction within the company hut we are trying to share the burden."
Low says his industry has already succeeded in lobbying for the date of the licence change to be delayed from January 1998 to 1999. "This was a major concession," says Low. "With more lobbying, we can achieve another one."