Call for changes to 0-licence plan Employment Act could raise pa
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OPERATORS' associations have been formulating their comments on the draft regulations on admission to the road haulage occupation, circulated to representative bodies last month (CM December 24).
The latest date for receipt of comments, January 10, has been extended by the Department of Transport.
The Freight Transport Association advised DTp that their proposals deserved to be finally approved by a Council meeting on January 25.
The draft regulations call for the issue of standard operators' licences entitling operation for hire and reward and on own account provided the operators satisfy the three conditions in the EEC Directive: good repute, financial standing and professional competence.
Restricted licences will be issued to operators satisfying the existing 0-licence requirements and who wish to operate solely on own account.
Operators granted restricted licences, yet operating for hire and reward, would have their licences revoked on conviction.
The standard operator's licence may authorise goods vehicles to be used for carrying goods for hire or reward, (a) on both international and national transport operations, or (b) on national transport operations only.
Precise operations permitted by the licence will be shown on the face of the licence.
The British Association of Removers feels that the prime justification given by the DTp for operators' licensing — road safety — is much too restricted for the removals industry.
BAR feels that the EEC proposals, with which British regulations must conform, would do little to prevent such abuses as occurred last year when two sizeable companies — Seven Seas and QRS — failed, with serious consequences.
The Road Haulage Association suggests that the proposed fine of £200 for restricted — own account — licence holders, convicted of carrying for hire and reward, should be increased to £500.
Another aspect concerning the RHA is that the professionally competent transport manager should be in the exclusive full-time employ of the operators. In brief, the RHA wants to close the door on the idea that an individual transport manager should "service" a large number of operating companies.
Tougher criteria are also sought in the context of convictions for which an 0-licence holder or his manager may be penalised.
The Association also wants "grandfather rights" to be restricted to those who can prove actual experience of the industry before January 1975. UNION chiefs are looking into a part of the Employment Protection Act that has just come into force, aimed at giving them a chance to gain more members and claim better pay and conditions for others.
Schedule 11 of the Act came into force on January 1 and already Transport and General Workers' union general secretary Jack Jones has told members that the new section "places a campaign challenge squarely in front of the union to spread its membership."
He says that there is now an opportunity to level up pay and conditions within the road haulage industry.
Under the new law a claim may be presented to the Advisory. Conciliation and Arbitration Services (ACAS) where two comparable sets of employees are paid differently or have different conditions. Drivers' wages vary from as little as £40 a week to £100 a week.
Jack Jones has also claimed that the employers' "escape route" from the section — the Road Haulage Wages Council — can now be forgotten under the changed position created by Schedule 11.
"It is now quite clear that the Wages Council for this industry is on the way out," said Mr Jones. "We expect that early in 1977 the Government will decide that a Wages Council for the road haulage industry is out-dated and unnecessary, bearing in mind the high level of collective negotiations taking place throughout the various areas of the UK," he said.
Mr Jones is also looking to increase his membership so that the union can put the new section into action. So long as there is at least one union member working in a firm, action can now be taken on behalf of all the employees in that firm. He told members of the union that the way was now open to achieve 100 per cent membership in the industry.
Employers' attitudes were summed up by a spokesman for the Road Haulage Association who said: "This is going to force a lot of the small men paying the lower wages out of business. It is bound to push up prices," he said.
"No doubt the industry will do its best to avoid paying more without a productivity scheme being in force," said the spokesman. He also wondered how employment levels in areas of high unemployment would be affected by the activation of Section 11.