TGWU waives threshold payments
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by CM reporter
AN AGREEMENT signed this week looks like bringing industrial peace to operators in the West Midlands. It also means that the Transport and General Workers' Union 5 / 35 branch has failed in its attempt to get 190 operators in the area to pay a 50p per day lunch allowance to their drivers (CM June 7).
When the agreement becomes operative on September 1, the only drivers who will be able to claim the 50p allowance are those who have been away from home the previous evening. It is understood that many of the operators involved were already paying lunch allowances of up to 30p.
It appears that the solidarity among the employers, which Mr J. Parnell, secretary of the West Midlands area of the R HA, called for (CM June 14) has succeeded. At that time, both the RHA and FTA pointed out that any, additional payment would be in breach of Phase 3 which was then in operation, although Mr Nick Bridge, the TGWU branch chairman, then told CM: "We are looking at clause 165, which clearly states that people can be reimbursed for any expenditure incurred in the course of business." But, added Mr Bridge: "Perhaps this is only meant to apply to managers and executives and not to drivers and office staff."
Throughout June the operators were faced with threats of industrial action, but in the event this did not take place. In fact. Mr Parnell described resistance to the 50p demand as the strongest he had ever known.
The new agreement gives drivers an increase of £4.65 a week, which includes threshold payments to date.
Overnight allowances are increased from £1.75 to £3 a night. This is in line with a proposal which the Road Haulage Wages Council sent to the Pay Board on June 12 for implementation on October 1, and which has already been implemented by British Road Services companies.
However, there is a clause in the West Midlands agreement which waives claim to any further threshold payments before the agreement expires.