RMC drivers not employees
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• An injunction granted recently in the High Court to Ready Mixed Concrete Ltd restraining Mr B. I. Cox, a district official of the Transport and General Worker's Union, and the union's general executive council from encouraging breaches of the haulage agreement between two RMC subsidiaries and about 200 contractors was continued last week by the Vice-Chancellor, Sir John Pennycuick. He further agreed that a mandatory injunction should be granted ordering the officials to withdraw the union's official strike notice.
The dispute between the company and the union arose out of a claim by 166 of the haulage contractors operating in the London and south-east areas for acceptance by the company of the union's claim for recognition as their negotiating representa
tive. • RMC rejected the union's claim, stating that it was inappropriate for independent self-employed drivers to be represented by a union whose membership was normally. almost entirely made up of employees, In protest against this the union told the company that "appropriate and dispute action" would be taken and on Thursday January 14 most of the haulage contractors stopped work, saying they were striking.
A High Court ruling in 1967 established that each haulage contractor was a selfemployed contractor (as opposed to an employee). RMC maintained throughout that a "strike" was inappropriate in view of the relationship between the self-employed haulage contractors and itself but, during the course of its arguments last week, the Union stated that the 1967 case was wrongly decided, and sought to show that the haulage contractors were in fact employees. These arguments, by the union, were, however, unsuccessful.
Mr P. J. Owen, managing director of RMC said in a statement last week that the company was now confident it would be able to resolve satisfactorily any outstanding issues with the contractors or the associations that represented them. He added that that the dispute concerned only two of the 18 subsidiaries for which haulage contractors operated under similar schemes.