Wages chaos warning by FTA
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CHAOS could result if there is no national road haulage wages body and a wages explosion could well be on the cards, claimed the Freight Transport Association this week.
In a statement the Association warns that following the abolition of the Road Haulage Wages Council and the implementation of Section 11 of the Employment Protection Act, there could be a rash of huge wage claims without some form of national guideline.
A spokesman for the FTA commented: "Without a national body laying down guidelines for the future of wages levels there is scope for leapfrogging. With no national reference everything is wide open," he said.
The FTA has also expressed its fears in a letter to Employment Secretary Albert Booth, in which it says that some kind of national body — preferably a statutory joint industrial council-..isneeded to lay down some form of guideline for the future of wages negotiations.
Road Haulage Wages Orders were not taken sufficient notice of, says the association (the orders laid down the minimum wages rates within the industry and were made by the wages council) and now that the body is no longer in existence some stronger form of guidance is needed.
"Section 11 which provides for workers to be given parity with those doing the same job elsewhere has come into effect and some unions have said that they will make use of it without a guideline, but we still consider that a guide is needed," said the FTA spokesman.
He said that the guide was needed to bring the wages negotiations within nationally laid down lines — not necessarily those of the pay code — to reduce the scope of talks and replace the Wages Council.