Holiday pay row set for tribunal
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by David Craik • Lancastrian driver Mike Brown is set to take Salford-based Renault truck dealer J Douthwaite & Son (JDS Trucks) to an industrial tribunal to demand £700 in holiday pay and wages he claims he is owed.
Brown was a driver for Cumbrian-based Transport Traction Services since June last year. On 28 January TTS went into voluntary liquidation but was taken over on the same day by JDS.
A letter sent to Brown by JDS managing director Peter Harper on 6 February said his wages and holiday entitlement would remain the same and his job was secure.
But on 25 February Harper said the operation that was TTS was "no longer viable" and would close at the end of February. Brown and 17 other drivers were made redundant.
Brown was paid one week's notice from 25 February, but says he is still owed one day's wages, worth £60, and holiday pay totalling £677.50. Harper is assessing Brown's claim and similar demands from four other drivers, but says he has fulfilled all transfer of undertaking obligations.
He says he cannot meet claims for holiday pay as the drivers cannot give him evidence of their terms with TTS. "I think the whole story has been made up," say Harper.
But Brown rejects this claim. "He is calling our bluff," he says. "He knows what the terms are. I'm getting a date for an industrial tribunal."