URTU to shame rogues
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by Karen Miles • Employers who force their drivers to break the law could face media ridicule thanks to a campaign about to be launched by the United Road Transport Union.
Cowboy operators who fail to toe the line after requests by the drivers' union will suffer the embarrassment of URTU's mobile office being parked outside their depot, with the local press in attendance, warns the union.
But the demonstrations, which form part of URTU's year-long whistleblower campaign, will not be con fined to hauliers. The union is threatening to target transport ministers in an effort to improve funding.
It says it will also park its mobile office outside the premises of Vehicle Inspectorate and police enforcement staff if URTU reports to the authorities about law-breaking operators are ignored.
Transport Commissioners who fail to act could also suffer.
Announcing the action at last week's Trades Union Congress in Brighton, URTU's president Dave Holden said: "We have received so many letters and telephone calls about unscrupulous bosses and uninterested enforcement authorities that we have decided to step up the campaign by confronting the guilty parties wherever they are found."
URTU wants a Government-run whistleblowers hot-line to combat lawlessness in the road transport sector.
So far "hundreds" of drivers are said to have formally complained to the union about illegal bosses—and a lack of response by the enforcement authorities.