TGWU backs diabetics
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• Grandfather rights could soon be introduced for insulintreated diabetic drivers of vehicles up to 7.5 tonnes whose licences are not being renewed under a new European law.
Danny Bryan, national secretary of road haulage at the Transport and General Workers Union, believes the Government can be persuaded by "compassion and the logic of argument" to give such drivers a dispensation from the driving licence law which came into effect on I January this year.
"These drivers undergo rigorous medical screening and there is no clear evidence that they pose a greater risk than any other sector of drivers," he says. Under the new law, insulintreated Cl and Dl licence holders will not get these entitlements when their licence comes up for renewal over the next few years on the grounds of safety (see Sound Off, page 40).
Bryan says the Government has failed to consider the social and economic effects of taking a blanket approach in banning all insulin-treated HGV drivers.
He is asking for meetings with the Government to attempt to persuade it to reconsider its stance on this issue.
The 196 insulin-treated C licence holders who received their licence before 1991 will retain their right to drive under existing grandfather rights.