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Out with nowt

19th April 1986, Page 12
19th April 1986
Page 12
Page 12, 19th April 1986 — Out with nowt
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Keywords : Law / Crime, Labor

• Five Arney Roadstone drivers who resigned to become owner drivers after ARC replaced its employee drivers with owner-drivers are not entitled to redundancy payment, a Birmingham industrial tribunal has ruled.

The drivers claimed redundancy payments, arguing that they had no choice and had been dismissed in the guise of resignation.

The tribunal said the facts were the same in each case, and it dealt with the case of Anthony Motile who had begun working for ARC in mid-1973 and was earning £200 gross per week when his employment ended in June 1985.

On July 1 he started driving on his own account under contract to the company.

In March 1984, when the owner-driver scheme was announced, the drivers were given the choice of resigning and becoming owner-drivers under contract to the company, or they could be made redundant.

They would be given help in obtaining operators' licences, being given time off for training, and with obtaining finance for their lorries.

The contracts would run until 1991 and be renewable thereafter.

The drivers were invited to sign a letter of intent in March 1985 and the company kept open the offer of redundancy.

The tribunal had to decide whether the choice of resignation, in the knowledge that the company did not intend to pay redundancy money, was a choice freely made or if it was forced on the drivers in circumstances tantamount to a dismissal.

It decided it was a choice freely exercised after a year in which to consider the options and take trades union advice and that the drivers had resigned of their own free will.

The tribunal noted that the company remained willing to pay redundancy money to any driver who preferred not to work for them as an ownerdriver.

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