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• It's a fact of life that distribution contracts change hands. An operator proposes a better deal than the existing haulier and the supermarket giant or oil company pays its money and takes its choice. But what happens to the drivers?
If the NFC group wins three industrial tribunal hearings which are now pending, operators who successfully poach contracts may be forced to take on drivers previously operating the contract — or foot the redundancy bills.
In addition, the European Commission has included proposals in its Social Action programme to toughen up its Transfer of Undertakings directive, which has been criticised for not offering wide enough consultation to employees who are affec
ted when their company is taken over.
In the UK these issues are covered by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 1987 which until now have normally been invoked only when a business and its assets are sold.
But last May, when NFC subsidiary BRS Midlands took over a small fleet from beer ingredient manufacturer James Vickers, an industrial tribunal in Leicester ruled that the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations applied. BRS was obliged to employ Vickers' staff under their existing terms and conditions or pay redundancy money under their existing agreement, taking into account length of service.
This ruling led NFC to take a fresh look at the regulations in a bid to turn the tables on any rivals who poached its contracts.
The most valuable of the three contracts in question is the five-year/ £75m Texaco deal which the Wincanton Transport division took over in October last year from Tankfreight. It employed 200 drivers and Wincanton and NFC has now agreed to set up a joint fund to pay redundant drivers, pending a tribunal decision.
But Wincanton refuses to accept that the Transfer Regulations apply: "We are treating the work as a new contract," says Wincanton marketing director John Greenhalgh.
NFC director of employee relations