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TRANSPORT and General Workers Union jected Liverpool employers' initial wage both sides return to negotiations later representatives have reoffer of the winter, but this month.
Employers offered to increase the 55-hour plain time guaranteed weekly wage for all drivers by £6, for £11.50 overnight subsistence to rise by 50p, for "dark money" to be raised by 2p per hour to 56p, and to discuss the introduction of a pension scheme.
But, adcording to TGWU officer Bob Robinson, the offer would have raised the 40-hour basic rate for drivers of 18to 32.5-tonners by £4.36 a week to £104.36, and the equivalent rate for 38-tonners by £4.19 to £108.19.
Liverpool drivers, who earn the highest basic rate in the United Kingdom, want a E7 increase in the 40-hour rate and a £1 increase in subsistence.
Both sides meet again on November 26, and in the meantime TGWU officers in the remainder of North-West England are to approach haulage companies direct to seek company level agreements. This follows employers' refusal to negotiate collectively with either the TGWU or the United Road Transport Union (CM, November 3).
Southern English TGWU drivers have broken with national policy by seeking a two-hour reduction in the working week to 38 hours. Other • areas have sought a one-hour cut.
The remainder of their claim is for the nationally agreed £7 on the 40-hour rates (32.5 tonnes: to £103; 38 tonnes; to £110.50); a £1.50 increase in subsistence to £12.25; a £1.50 meal allowance; for five weeks' holiday entitlement after five years' service; an increase in holiday pay and improvements in sickness and accident benefit and compensation for loss of hgv licence.
In the East Midlands, the TGWU has followed its West Midlands and Scottish colleagues by seeking a £10 increase in basic pay (32.5 tonnes: to £104.90). It wants the 38 tonnes rate to be £5.50 above the 32.5 tonne rate, a 39hour week to be established, for subsistence to rise by £1 to £12.50, and for night work to be paid at time-and-a-third.
The claim also specifies an extra week's holiday, improved' holiday pay, improvements to such insured items as sick pay, and for an industry-based pension scheme to be established.