owboy coaches face showdown
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
:OWBOY coach operators in the Bristol area are slashing the .ates of established firms and getting the whole industry a bad vputation, says the area's coach industry.
And now the South Western Joint Industrial Council is to seek ). meeting with the traffic commissioners to find out the basis on Arhich licences are granted.
On the employers' side, secretary Len Collings told CM last veek that one-man operations were being started with coaches )arked on bomb sites with no facilities for maintenance or ;araging.
"We have declared war on the cowboy operator," he said, 'these people are taking work from the established operators md then letting the public down and getting us all a bad eputation,' said Mr Collings.
For the union, secretary F. G. Coles said that the unions were oncerned about the use of part-time labour by the small Terators. "If a man is driving another vehicle all week and then las a part-time job driving a coach then the time should come off us regular week," he said.
"We will be asking the traffic commissioners if these men are setting the required rest periods and about the maintenance of he vehicles."
Both sides were also concerned that the men driving for the ne man operator were being paid the rate for the job, and they lave announced new pay scales for coach driving.
The basic wage for a six day week at seven hours a day Aonday to Saturday in the South West is now £38.50 a week vith a Sunday rate of El an hour for a minimum of five hours and ivertirrie paid at 92p an hour.
To this will be added the latest rise of five per cent with a ninimum of £2.50 and a maximum of £41.