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Driver wins back £250
Page 12
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deduded by employer
A Northumberland operator has been ordered to repay the money it deducted from a driver's final pay packet to help cover the cost of an
accident. Guy Sheppard reports.
AN EMPLOYMENT tribunal has ordered a Northumberland haulier to repay £250 that it deducted from a driver's final wage packet because of an accident he had before he left.
Cooper's Freightmaster, part of the Cooper Group, claims the deduction was valid because its contract of employment states that drivers have to meet part of any insurance claim if they are to blame for an accident.
But the tribunal in Newcastle heard that Robert Ingham had never signed the document so it was not legally binding.
Chris Dubber, the United Road Transport Union regional officer who represented Ingham, says the accident took place in February, nearly two months before he left the company.
"The accident was still being investigated by the insurance company and nothing had been settled," he adds.
Dubber reports that Ingham's artic had scraped the front of a car as the two vehicles approached a roundabout. "In the worst-case scenario, he accepts he might be partly but not fully to blame," he adds. 'The car driver had sneaked up on the inside."
John Davison, transport manager for the company,says Ingham had effectively accepted its terms and conditions by continuing to work for the company after the document was issued.
''He didn't come and tell anyone at the company that he didn't want to work under those terms and conditions," he adds. "If he wasn't happy. why didn't he leave?"