More drivers' hours exemptions from May 10
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• New regulations coming into force on May 10 extend further the list of drivers' hours exemptions applying to the carriage of certain specialized goods.
The new rules, the Drivers' Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Exemptions) Regulations 1972, replace the Drivers' Hours (Goods Vehicles) (Exemptions) Regulations 1970 and the Drivers' Hours (Goods Vehicles) Exemptions) (Amendment) (No 3) Regulations 1970.
Included in the list of exemptions in the sew regulations are amendments to existing exemptions and a number of completely sew ones affecting the carriage of such ;oods as explosives, radio-active materials, ;hips' stores, shopfittings and liquid egg.
A previous exemption applying to the :arriage of agricultural lime, seed or 'utilizer has been extended to include the :arriagc of fodder or feedingstuffs for tnimals and where under this category previously the carriage of trees felled and delivered in Scotland only had the advantage of extended daily and weekly duty period, this has been widened to apply to the carriage of trees from any place where they have been recently felled.
Exemptions applying to work done in connection with furniture removal now apply also to the carriage of shop fittings to or from shops.
Where on specific working days exemptions applied previously to the carriage of milk, similar exemptions now apply to the carriage of liquid egg in bulk.
Workers involved wholly or mainly in connection with the distribution of newspapers, magazines or periodicals who previously were exempt from the general hours rules so far as the spreadover and daily rest period was concerned, may now also extend their daily duty period to 14 hours.
Further exemptions apply to agricultural workers involved in the repair of agricultural machines. The previous exemption only applied to the repair of such machines when being used in harvesting, but under the new regulations the exemptions will apply also for work done in connection with the replacement of such machines and in supplying them with fuel and lubricants.
The new exemptions in the regulations apply to work done wholly or mainly in connection with the delivery of materials or components to sites where building or civil engineering work is being carried out.
The carriage of explosives (within the meaning of the Explosives Act 1875), radio-active substances (within the meaning of the Radio-active Substances Act 1948) or the delivery of ships' stores are now exempt a defence of the right to work, and that they had the sole right to unpack containers between manufacturer and customer.
Mr Heaton said that 97 per cent of the firms who had signed an agreement with the unions were solely employed on road haulage. But Heatons were warehousemen besides hauliers, and had obligations to their customers.
"We are certainly not signing this document" he said. "If we could have a national agreement whereby everyone in the country who has warehouses and transport should agree the dockers do it then we would abide by it, but we are not going to be picked out in isolation."
Mr Heaton said the firm could avoid traffic to the docks for quite a time. "We have some very good friends and I think between us we could carry on."
This followed Sunday's statement from TGWU leader Jack Jones that the union was continuing to urge all its members not to indulge in what he termed "blocking" activities.
The TGWU was fined .£50,000 last week for contempt of NIRC after the continued "blacking" of lorries by Liverpool dockers in defiance of court injunctions. It did not make an appearance in court, in accordance with TTJC policy of boycotting agencies of the Industrial Relations Act.
But since then Mr Jones, general secretary, has issued a statement headed "Docks and the Courts",
"There is frustration and growing anger among dockers about what is happening to them," he said. They were part of "a massive technological revolution that is bringing, unfortunately, not security and prosperity, but unemployment and, in too many cases, a cut in living standards-.
Five years ago, there were more than 60.000 registered dock workers; now there were little more than 40.000.
It could not be said that the men had refused to co-operate in modernization. The number of containers used had meant that a growing number of jobs were disappearing "inland" — frequently to be done by cheaper labour, said Mr Jones.
"When workers see employers selling up wharves and warehouses for highly profitable property redevelopment and moving inland, taking jobs with them. is there any doubt as to why the anger and resistance is growing?
"When employers seek to escape the responsibility for giving decent protection to dock workers by moving to new sites in different ports, is there any difficulty in understanding the resentment this causes?"
Fle added that a solution was possible, but there had to be a development of new jobs in the areas of the ports themselves. An agreement had to be carried through on the basis of efforts made by men who knew the
docks not by remote courts. Meantime, the union continued to urge all its members to work normally and not to indulge in -blocking" activities.