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31st March 1994, Page 42
31st March 1994
Page 42
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Page 42, 31st March 1994 — O ut of
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

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Amid all the talk of recovery and the end of recession the Confederation of British Industry reports that employers are taking a tougher line on pay this year compared to last. Many pay deals for drivers in big fleet operations this year are still well under the CBI's current service sector average of 2.6%. And that's if they're offered anything at all.

On the surface, the hire-or-reward sector would seem to be a little better with settlements at between 2.7 and 4% but comparisons are misleading as base rates in this sector are usually lower. So drivers are still languishing at the bottom end of the pay scale.

It would be easy to lay the blame for poor pay at the feet of the hauliers but operators in the private sector face a highly competitive market where the customers are constantly looking at saving on transport costs. And in the public sector Government limits are keeping drivers' rates depressed. Last year Royal Mail's Parcelforce drivers settled at just under the 1.5% Government ceiling for public bodies. This year the Government is saying that whatever increase is given has to be paid for by a rise in productivity. The Parcelforce pay review takes place on 1 July and Janice Bailey, responsible for pay at the company, says any rise must be self-financed and won't get passed on in higher prices to the customers: "We have to make sure that we keep our costs down like everybody else in the market_ So we have to look at all our costs including the paybill," she says. In such a competitive atmosphere the transport industry, and in particular the drivers, have become undervalued by its users. So now those who represent the drivers have decided it is time to show the customer exactly what the true costs of running a transport operation are.

The problem is currently being addressed by two approaches.

BETTER DEAL

Last Sunday (27 March) a group of drivers met in Manchester to launch a campaign to improve the image of the transport industry and get a better deal for drivers. The organisers blame drivers' bad conditions on the current market free-for-all which sets driver against driver and creates an atmosphere of exploitation. "We want a set of guidelines established so that the people who actually run the vehicles and do the job get the correct money as a matter of course rather than trying to cut each other's throats," says Jack Crossfield, co-organiser of the campaign.

Crossfield, a Class 1 LGV driver and veteran of previous drivers' hours and cabotage campaigns, says the industry is deteriorating fast and he is calling for the introduction of a minimum rate. "Looking at the job we do and the responsibility we have we are grossly underpaid," he says. "We have to have special skills if we carry chemicals, we have to have meclicals to see if we are fit to do the job and yet we are treated like secondclass workers. For five days work I take home £150.," "In some of the large fleets we have drivers working in excess of 60 hours a week when you take into account non-driving duties," he adds. "Some drivers don't realise that they are only insured third party and they probably are not insured for loss of licence through medical reasons. Although they give the impression of having nice uniforms and conditions when you dig down you find they are still missing out on what they should be getting."

Although he is a TGWU branch secretary, Crossfield lays the blame for the current situation at the door of the unions as much as the employers: "I get embarrassed when I hear union officers, who earn £300 per week plus, telling skilled men to accept £150 or £160. What we have to do is break downthe barriers which we have always had in the industry and which have been created purposely by the trade unions as well as the Government This is not a union campaign—it is a drivers' campaign. The only people who are going to run this campaign are the drivers themselves."

Crossfield says he has the support of drivers from all over the country and his section alone has over 600 drivers representing 120 companies. Other areas represented include Norfolk, Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester as well as a large section in Scotland.

But this grass-roots movement is not the way to win better conditions for drivers, says David Higginbottom, general secretary of the United Road Transport Union. He fears that it will be the unions which will get the blame if the campaign backfires. "Jack Crossfield is going to whip people up into a state of frenzy that could lead to action such as blockades and the like. If it goes off half-cocked it will be the trade unions which will be drawn into trying to sort something out and we will end up with a shabby compromise which will probably put our position back another 10 years.

"I don't doubt Jack Crossfield's anger and sincerity, I just hope that he doesn't stretch it too far and continue what seems to be a vendetta against the unions," says Higginbottom.

The problem of drivers being undervalued is being addressed by the URTU at the moment with what Higginbottom describes as a more controlled and systematic approach. The union is in the process of carrying out a skills audit (CM 10-16 March) which he says will clearly establish what skills drivers have, how important they are to the economy and what they need to know The project team will also look into the areas of stress and fatigue as well as the economics of road transport. "We will be talking to a couple of former British Airways pilots to draw a comparison with the complexity of driver's jobs as compared with that of an airline pilot," says Higginbottom. "We are pulling together a lot of information and the report we are producing will state in very clear terms exactly what a driver does; what it is worth; and what he is getting paid. It will also state what we believe he should be paid."

SKILLED WORKERS

The report, which is set for publication by mid-summer, will compare drivers' skills with those of other skilled workers and will form the basis of future arguments put forward by the URTU on behalf of its members.

However in one important area Higginbottom agrees with Crossfield. He too wants to see the transport industry's image improved and feels that the skills audit will act to inject a certain amount self esteem into the industry. "We see improving the drivers' lot as being inextricably linked with the bigger job of improving the status of the industry generally. It is an important industry in the economy yet we treat it like something second rate. We have to say to the employers that it's as much in their interest to get these rates of pay up and to raise the standard of the industry I think that jointly we can make progress. But if they want to tough it out then we are back with Jack Crossfield. But instead of Crossfield organising it will be us."

El by Paul Newman


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