Industry settles for less
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• This year's road haulage wage settlements are lower than the haulage pay agreements for 1986 and lower than those in industry in general.
Figures just released by the Confederation of British Industry show that manufacturing industry settlements for the first quarter of 1987 averaged 5.1%. Haulage settlements for the same period range between 4.57% and 5.23%, with an average agreement of 5%, compared with last year's range of between 5.1% and 6.1% and an average of 5.8%. This year's claim was for an average across-the-board increase of just over 7%. The Road Haulage Association's industrial relations adviser, George Chadfield, claims that: "Operators' margins are under such pressure that these percentage settlements are generous in the circumstances."
Earlier this year RHA national chairman Glyn Samuel warned that any increases beyond the level of inflation would be "profligate". With inflation running at 4% and operators' costs up by 2.76% in the first three months of 1987 Samuel now says: "Although wages increases are above the current inflation rate they are certainly not as outrageously inflationary as in others years I can remember."