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No action over pension?
Page 5
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• A row over pensions in the UK's two biggest road transport companies is unlikely to spark Industrial action, says a Road Haulage Association executive.
Ruth Pott, RHA head of employment affairs, adamant that drivers are far more concerned about their hourly rates of pay than the pension they end up with.
However, union leaders are still fighting plans by Exel and Wincanton to scrap their final salary Schemes in favour of money-purchase plans, Where the end value is totally dependent on stock market performance (0M9-15 Jan).
Poll says employees often give up a good pension and other benefits for a slightly better rate of pay. "In my experience, drivers tend to take the short-term view." But the Transport & General Workers Union says there have been several strikes to protect final salary schemes in other industries, including one by hundreds of workers at the Yuasa automotive battery plant in Birmingham last October.
Jimmy Hill, TGWU Midland regional chairman for road transport, predicts there will be calls for similar industrial action at Exel and Wincanton.
Andrew Dotigson, spokesman for the TGWU, says: "Pensions are tremendously important for us as an issue, particularly in transport because it is such a fragmented industry."
He claims significant numbers of small and medium-sized hauliers do not offer any pension schemes at all.