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'Days off' firm goes broke
Page 43
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• The firm which offered its drivers a day off work with full pay on the occasion of their birthdays (CM July 23) — Tina Transport, Terrington, St Clement, Norfolk — has closed down, and a "funeral" was enacted at the company's base on Wednesday, when an auction of its vehicles, stores and fittings was conducted by order of HM Collector of Taxes. A black-edged notice of obituary was displayed at the depot, and gave as the cause of death the Transport and General Workers Union.
Mr Gordon Brown, 45, the company's • general manager, blames a dispute which followed the signing in July of a 12-clause agreement on working conditions, which included the birthday holidays. The agreement had been negotiated by TGWU district secretary Mr Alf Avison — a man noted for his militancy.
Within a week of the agreement, which Mr Brown thought would "keep the men happy", some of the seven drivers who had been earning £36 or more a week were demanding more time off and bigger allowances. Mr Brown claims he "bent over backwards" to agree with the union but was eventually forced to close down the depot — a move the TGWU claimed as a "lock-out".
He was now broke, he said, and owed £500 tax, his only future was on the dole.