1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188 
Union seminars aim to end East/West drivers' pay gap
Page 11
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
TRADE UNION LEADERS have won £170,0(X) of European Union funding to educate officials about the need to harmonise pay and conditions among truck drivers throughout Europe.
Some of the cash will be spent on a series of seminars this autumn in which trade unionists from Western Europe will team up with their counterparts in Eastern Europe to discuss ways of achiev ing this goal. In the UK, for example, the Transport & General Workers Union will be holding a seminar with the Estonian transport union ETTA.
The harmonisation project is called Reducing the Gap. Its manager, Carsten Paulin, says: "What we're trying to do is speed up integration so we can get the same money for the same job and the same standard of social security when travelling through Europe. It would mean that if a truck driver gets taken ill on the way. they have the right to go into hospital."
Paulin estimates that it will take five to eight years to achieve harmonisation and remove the incentive for international operators to undercut wage levels in Western Europe by employing drivers from poorer countries in the East.
He says one indication that the harmonisation process is already under way is a national agreement for Lithuanian drivers which raises their wages by 25%.
Countries involved in the project also include Denmark, Germany, Latvia, Poland and Sweden. It was originally set up more than two years ago and, earlier this year, resulted in a week of action to raise awareness of drivers' statutory rights and encourage them to unionise (CM 1 I May).