Lane ends pay freeze
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
by Grant Prior • More than 180 drivers at the Lane Group have been awarded a 1.7% pay increase only months after the firm imposed a wage freeze.
A mass meeting lasting two and a half hours agreed to the 1.7% rise last Friday (24 September).
The move followed months of negotiations between the Bristolbased firm and the United Road Transport Union.
"The firm said it couldn't afford any pay increases at the annual wages talks in May. But we got an agreement to reassess the situation in September and this is the result", says URTU regional official Peter Rendall.
Turnover at the Lane Group has picked up dramatically recently with £2m in new contracts won this month from BASF Coatings, RA Brand Paper and window firm Cego.
The pay deal begins on 4 October and lasts for eight months until the next set of annual wages talks in May 1994. A spokeswoman for Lane says: "The drivers and the rest of the 300 staff have worked really hard this year, and if it hadn't been for them we wouldn't have won this new business. It is nice to be able to go to them now and say here's something for all the hard work."
Drivers at the firm are already on a bonus scheme which rewards them for above average performance.
They are regularly monitored and drivers reaching the top grade receive pay rewards plus extra pension benefits and health cover for their families (CM 11-17 February).
1=1Lane Group managing director Rebecca Jenkins has won the prestigious Working Women Mean Business Award. Jenkins, 32, has enjoyed a meteoric rise to the top since starting her career as a 21year-old truck driver delivering frozen chickens.