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Hauliers black defence deal
Page 5
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WEST Midlands hauliers have blacked a Ministry of Defence contract after it was taken away from a haulier who had paid a 15 per cent wage rise to drivers in breach of the Government Pay Code.
The contract, to carry Alvis Scorpion light tanks from the Coventry factory to a base near Andover, Hants, was originally placed with Capers Transport of Coventry.
And this week Capel's managing director Tony Fletcher told CM that the contract had later been offered to another haulier who had also paid the same rise to his drivers — that man has now turned the contract down.
Capers received a letter from the Ministry of Defence on February 24 asking Mr Fletcher to sign a form saying that the company was abiding by the Government Pay Code. Mr Fletcher contacted West Midlands Road Haulage Association area secretary Bob Ward, who advised him to write back saying that his rates were in line with the agreement signed by the West Midlands RHA and the Transport and General Workers' Union_ "Then we find that there is no more work coming from. the Ministry of Defence," said Mr Fletcher. Later both Alvis and the MoD confirmed that Capel's had been blacked under the Government policy of not using companies in breach of the policy.
"If we were a small company we couldn't stand this, but luckily the job was only a small proportion of our work," said Mr Fletcher.
And now the RHA has slammed the Government move as "Government by intimidation" and agrees that Capel's had no option but to abide by the local pay agreement.
"This move is retribution, which is as iniquitous as it is absurd," said an RHA spokesman. "Capel's is an innocent victim in a dispute which is basically one between the Government and trades unions." , The RHA added that, as a result of the dispute, Scorpions — vital to Britain's defence — are standing idle because there is no reputable haulier able to meet the Government's Pay Code requirements, which don't have the authority of Parliament.
Mr Fletcher told CM that his company had been carrying out the contract for 25 years with no complaints by the MoD until the Pay Code was formulated.
"It's not the job I worry about so much as the principle," said Mr Fletcher, who added "the MoD is now proposing to put the job elsewhere at an extra cost to the taxpayer."
Meanwhile Capel's 52vehicle fleet is blacked under the pay policy.