Iceland drivers threaten action
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by Karen Miles • Drivers at frozen foods group Iceland's Deeside depot are threatening industrial action after signalling solidarity with a fellow driver sacked for making safety detours.
Other drivers at Iceland's Milton Keynes and Stratford, East London depots are now deciding whether to follow the driver's colleagues at the Deeside, Clwyd depot.
All three in-house depots are expected to back Roy Hammond, who was sacked earlier this month for making regular 21-mile detours to avoid a Cumbrian village with a 14% (1-in-7) hill (CM 1319 July).
It is now expected that the Transport and General Workers Union food and drinks & tobacco national secretary Brian Revell will recommend a ballot on industrial action to back Hammond.
According to TGWU official John Beard: "The drivers feel that Roy did not commit a sackable offence. He's been with the company for 11 years and they all take their own routes; they aren't allocated them."
Hammond was sacked after his vehicle's satellite tracking system showed he made the same M6 detour 22 times, claiming the extra mileage. He is now considering taking the case to an industrial tribunal and is said to have turned down an offer of £8,000 of compensation.
Hammond says he originally avoided Kirkby Stephen because the villagers had staged protests about the dangers of trucks to schoolchildren.