Tribunal rejects drivers' appeal
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• Four drivers who were made redundant by Kettering-based Royal Blue Transport have failed to win higher redundancy payments by appealing to an industrial tribunal.
They may be entitled to payments in lieu of notice, but following a recent High Court ruling they would have to pursue this with the company or through the County Courts. Industrial tribunals no longer have the jurisdiction to handle such cases.
A Leicester industrial tribunal said that in May 1984 a wage agreement stated that Royal Blue drivers would get £130.50 for a 50-hour week (Monday to Friday). But from 1985 the company reverted to paying a basic weekly wage with an improved overtime rate after 40 hours and drivers did not object.
The drivers told the tribunal that their basic wage was £125.80 for 40 hours, but that their average take-home pay was substantially higher. They maintained that their redundancy pay should have been calculated on their average earnings over the last 12 weeks.
The tribunal said that such a calculation could only be used when there was casual employment or no normal working hours. The drivers were also relying on the 1984 agreement, contending that there was still a contractual arrangement for a guaranteed 50 hours. Wage records showed that they were normally employed for at least 50 hours a week.
The 1984 agreement was only intended to be temporary, said the tribunal. In 1985 a driver's basic wage reverted to 40 hours and that arrangement continued for the next five years so the firm had been right to calculate the redundancy payment on a 40hour week.