Recorder clock row shuts Granary Haulage
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• The haulage section of Granary Holdings Ltd., a Burton-on-Trent company employing 300, is to be shut down following a row over the use of Servis recorder clocks in its 20 vehicles. The decision is final and irrevocable, the secretary of the firm, Mr P. Higgins, told CM this week.
Granary Haulage Ltd, part of the trading company, Granary Holdings Ltd with a diversification of business in the area including food processing and garage manufacture, has dismissed the 20 drivers it employs after a lengthy period in which the firm claimed it had been striving to increase productivity without avail.
Mr Higgins said that as part of this plan the firm had decided to install the clock as a method of gaining information on how it could help drivers gain productivity . incentive. However, the men had gone on strike in January after claiming that this type of watch-dog method inhibited their chances of increasing productivity. The company then made an offer to Transport and General Workers' Union local officials, who had not declared the strike either official or unofficial at that time, to take out the Servis recorder clock and cards for a trial period of 14 days to see if the drivers, by their own efforts, could raise the productivity to the required levels. During this period the company said it guaranteed the drivers a five-day, 10-hour a day, week which would give them some 15 hours overtime plus incentive. The challenge was not accepted and the men remained on strike.
Meetings with union officials failed to break this and Mr Higgins said that after a lengthy discussion by company officials it was decided to close down for good the haulage section if the drivers did not return to work. The 20 men involved failed to do so by the time permitted and the company had no other alternative but to carry out its intention.
Mr Higgins said that the haulage side of Granary Holdings had been operating for some 12 years on a profitable basis carrying a variety of goods under A and B licences. However, the company had been striving to obtain a reasonable guarantee of productivity increase based on incentives for some time without any effect. He told CM that the company had paid above local RHA rates for some considerable time.