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IFC chief says high rages here to stay
Page 5
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iH WAGES for haulage drivers are here to stay, but producty must dominate future pay negotiations, according to tonal Freight Corporation chief executive Peter Thompson.
peaking in Dublin this k, Mr Thompson said that ers' pay has risen by 37 per over the last two years as suit of drivers having realtheir industrial muscle.
Lt he said that NFC's latest nd of negotiations esented a ray of hope for future. Unions and iagement had agreed that 'e was a relationship been efficiency and the es an enterprise can afford ay.
r Thompson thought that final deal was balanced, ing: "On one hand, the ional Freight companies p. a sizeable increase on c pay, at least in line with e negotiated in the private or.
Xi the other hand, the ins recognised that if NFC to be viable, it had the t to expect from its drivers ast the levels of producty which were being .ined by the better private panies."
referred to new deals on ;peed at which vehicles are ,duled, to greater flexibility of work between drivers and depot staff, and to a big clamp-down on abuses of the recently-improved industrial sickness scheme.
• This was a pointer to the future, and he added: "No longer can increases be granted simply on the relative strength of the two negotiating bodies at the table."
Mr Thompson went on to highlight the major surgery which is being worked on Roadline UK in an effort to improve its productivity.
The switch this year to 40ft trunking vehicles and mechanised hub centres will reduce trunk services from 1500 to 740, and handling staff from 2086 to 1830. But efficiency will rise, with over S5 per cent of parcels delivered within two days.
Initial union reaction to Mr Thompson's speech has been mixed. Transport and General Workers Union road transport commercial group secretary Jack Ashwell told CM: "I would agree with it."
He welcomed the introduction of productivity into negotiations, and said that detailed discussions at NFC company level meant that negotiations could proceed in a far more positive manner.
"It is beneficial to everyone. Company managers won't be influenced by other companies' positions," he added.
But United Road Transport Union general secretary Jackson Moore was more hostile, especially as talk of drivers' wages will subside between now and the summer.
"It seems an inopportune time to come. up with utterances like that. It is the wrong time for Mr Thompson to be flexing his muscles like the chairman of the British Streel Corporation."