Court Award Against C-Licensees
Page 30
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THE Industrial Court have decided that wages paid to drivers by G. H. Kime and Co., Ltd., Wrangle, Boston, Lines, were unfair. The company are wholesale vegetable and potato merchants, and hold C licences. Their drivers operate to London, Bradford, Newcastle upon Tyne, Bristol, Southampton, Sheffield, Leeds i Manchester, Hull, Birmingham and elsewhere.
The United Road Transport Workers Association of England, who 'took the matter to the Industrial Court, claimed that the driven i were doing identical work to that performed by employees of British Road Services and other drivers of A-licensed vehicles on market work. They should, therefore, receive the pay laid down by Road Haulage Wages Orders:
The employers admitted that their rates of pay were lower than those stipulated by the Wages Council. They claimed, however, that as a lorry driver might, when not required for driving, be given work in pulling,, picking or cutting vegetables, his work was ancillary to agriculture and his remuneration should ,be contrasted with agricultural wages, rather than those applying in road haulage.
Moreover, as the company, could not carry for hire or reward, they _could not obtain return loads, and no comparison could be made between them and Aand B-licence holders.
The court has ordered that the drivers shall be paid at the scale fixed by the Wages Council, and have, back-dated the award to October 1 last.