Unions protest over owner-driver clause
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• by Sally Nash Growing concern over the opt-out clause for owner-drivers in the Working Time Directive has prompted union leader Bill Morris to take up the issue with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Morris. general-secretary of the Transport & General Workers Union, is pressing for a meeting with Blair and the Read Haulage Association in a bid to press home the industry's safety concerns about exempting self-employed drivers.
"I have been raising the issue with government advisers but all this whispering in ears has not produced any results so I think it is time to write formally,says Morris.
The move conies as the directive moves to the European Parliament for its second reading in April—a process that is likely to last until June. tary Danny Bryan says: "Those three months are a crucial phase and we will be lobbying hard in that time because the European Parliament actually supports our cause—that is including self-employed drivers in the directive."
Lobbying the European parliament and the UK government is part of a multi-pronged campaign to overturn the exemption for owner-drivers, he adds. Union members are being urged to contact their MPs. Last year EU ministers decided to extend the 48-hour working week to the haulage sector but gave self-employed drivers a three-year exemption (CM 4-10 Jan 2000).
• T&G members in Leeds plan to launch a public awareness campaign about the safety benefits of including all drivers in the legislation, according to senior regional industrial organiser Ronnie Morrison.