Allied Bakeries in URTU rates row
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• Allied Bakeries and the United Road Transport Union are deadlocked over the company's plans to reform the company's long-standing pay structure for driver/salesmen.
The two sides have been going through a conciliation attempt by ACAS, the industrial relations mediators, but with the dispute unresolved URTU is now likely to seek arbitration. Meanwhile it has warned Allied that if it tries to force changes, a strike ballot will be called. Traditionally, Allied drivers have been paid bonuses related to sales. This recognised their close relationship with shopkeepers. But the company argues that the formula is irrelevent to supermarket deliveries and wants to axe this "salesman's" bonus.
URTU general-secretary Frank Griffin objects to the changes on four counts. The revised package will cut some drivers' pay by up to £80 a week — some drivers can earn £400 a week — although there will also be some who gain.
The redundancy on offer is "wholly unnacceptable", as are the one-off buy-out terms the company proposes, he says.
Griffin also fears that while the changes will initially apply to only 20% of his 3,000 members at Allied, the company plans to abolish driver/salesman grades altogether and replace them with driver grades.
Allied declined to make any comment on the dispute.