TWU used Labor's national conference at the weekend to congratulate the man responsible for championing its safe rates agenda
December 5, 2011
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) used Labor’s national conference at the weekend to congratulate the man responsible for championing its safe rates agenda.
The TWU and a truck driver and his family presented Infrastructure and Transport Minister Anthony Albanese with a giant card congratulating him for introducing a bill to create a tribunal to rule on pay rates in the trucking industry.
TheRoad Safety Remuneration Bill was introduced last month and, if passed, with create a tribunal within Fair Work Australia with the power to issue binding rulings on matters such as paid waiting times and payment periods.
“For far too long, truck drivers, whether they be owner drivers or employee drivers, have had to meet absurd deadlines, work for rates that are too low and endure hours and hours of unpaid waiting,” TWU National Secretary Tony Sheldon says.
He says the tribunal will have “a huge effect” on the industry through its power to hold the entire supply chain accountable on rates and pay-related conditions.
A regulatory analysis released alongside the announcement of a tribunal found that 29 percent of owner-drivers are working for less than the minimum wage and that the tribunal could reduce pay-related crashes by 25 percent.
The Opposition has questioned a link between safety and rates of pay and plans to send the bills to a committee to examine.