Living standards slide
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by Juliet Parish III Truck drivers are unlikely to recover money lost to this month's tax increases in their 1994 pay negotiations.
The Transport & General Workers Union is determined to use the tax increases, alongside its minimum L4-an-hour campaign, to win better pay deals for drivers.
TGWU general secretary Bill Morris estimates that drivers need a 6% pay rise to maintain their living standards at pre-April level: "We estimate that VAT on fuel bills, the increase in national insurance contributions and the freezing or cutting of tax allowances add up to a 3% cut in real pay levels," he says.
"Coming on top of rising inflation this means our members need pay increases of at least 6% to avoid a serious drop in living standards, so I am urging all those involved in pay negotiations to take that figure as a guide for what they need to achieve."
But the Road Haulage Association, which represents about 10,000 of their employers, says drivers have little chance of being recompensed for the taxes which were introduced to reduce the Government's deficit.
The RHA's manager for employment affairs, Rod Jenkins, says unions would make this year's pay negotiations far more effective if they concentrated on productivityrelated pay rather than a percentage increase: "Because margins are so tight for hauliers nowadays any pay increases have to be earned," he says.