Time Directive 'will hit wages' • The average British driver
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will lose about £94.50 under the EU Working Time Directive, unless the Government addresses the issue of wages. As CM went to press it was rumoured that the Directive would be announced on Wednesday (8 April).
United Road Transport Union general-secretary David Higginbottom, who attended the recent meeting at the Department of Transport along with the Transport & General Workers Union's Ron Webb and other union officials, says the average hourly rate would have to rise to £6.32 to compensate for the loss of hours. He claims that drivers work about 62 hours a week in return for average gross earnings of £328.50, based on an hourly rate of £4.50 plus overtime. But after speaking to civil servants at the DOT, Higginbottom is convinced that the Government "has no plans to address the issue of earnings".
"Even more surprising was the fact that other trade union representatives at the meeting seemed either to ignore the implications for earnings or to regard the loss as acceptable in pursuit of road safety improvements," he adds. Higginbottom has repeated his call for the creation of a single trade union for the industry, working within the TUC. He says he will take his appeal to the drivers and road haulage workers "who have, so far, played no part in shaping the future of the industry in which they work".