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Union repeat call for E 0/hr... but in vain
Page 8
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UNION LEADERS have reaffirmed their commitment to a £10an-hour minimum for truck drivers after research showed the average is still hovering below £7.
TheTransport & General Workers Union launched its £10 target in October 2001 and has reaffirmed it every year since.
But Ruth Pott, the Road Haulage Association's head of employ ment, believes few employers take much notice of this aspiration in pay negotiations.
"They ItheT&G] were whistling in the wind in 2001 when they wanted £10. It was clearly not going to happen and it hasn't happened," she says.
One of the T&G's justifications for the £10 figure is next year's introduction of the Working Time Directive, but Poll plays down its impact on pay: "Pay rates have gone up but haven't gone up hugely and there's no sign of a huge increase in pay in the next round despite the directive."
Last month a joint survey by the RHA and Incomes Data Services showed that the average pay for artic drivers is now £6.96/hr, nearly 5% up on last year, while the average for rigid drivers is /6.68/hr; a jump of more than 8% (CM 11 November).
T&G spokesman Andrew Dodgshon says no time limit has been set for the £10 objective: "I don't think anybody was pretending that we would be achieving it overnight."
• For more on pay and the Working Time Directive see page 20.