Currie Group acts on driver complaints • Drivers working for
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Dumfries-based Currie Group last week wrote to CM claiming they are being exploited and plastered copies of a letter outlining their grievances on noticeboards at truckstops. The letter, signed by a "number of Currie drivers" and purporting to come from driver and shop steward Fred Norris, highlighted a string of concerns including low pay, long hours and the lack of a pension scheme. CM wrote back to Norris but we were then told that our letter had been handed to Currie's bosses. Norris then denied writing the letter and Currie's management called in its lawyers to try to sort out the situation.
An urgent meeting was then arranged between Currie, the Transport and General Workers Union, Norris and Currie's lawyers.
Currie's managing director David Ross stressed that the action was not taken in order to carry out a witch-hunt to find the author of the letter but to tackle the evident dissatisfaction among its drivers.
"I don't want guys working for the company who aren't happy," says Ross.
Currie's lawyer, Anne Rafferty, says current terms and conditions were drawn up in conjunction with the T&G and that most drivers are "very satisfied" with working practices. She also claims that many of the allegations contained in the letter are "incorrect".
But one Currie driver on international work told CM that drivers fear dismissal if they are discovered to be talking to the media. "Drivers are really fed up and scared about losing their jobs," he says. "The only way we could get things out in the open was to contact the press."