Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal will focus on supermarkets, the cash-in-transit industry and the linehaul sector in 2014
Supermarkets and those businesses servicing them will bear the brunt of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal’s (RSRT) focus in 2014, while the the cash-in-transit sector and linehaul operations will also face scrutiny.
Fresh from signing off on its first enforceable order yesterday, the RSRT today announced it plans for next year with the release of its second annual work program.
A key part of the RSRT’s responsibilities, the annual work program is designed to chart the areas the tribunal will concentrate on in the year ahead.
President Jennifer Acton says the RSRT will inquire into road transport services that are “wholly or substantially in relation to goods, wares, merchandise, material or anything whatsoever destined for sale or hire by a supermarket chain”.
The RSRT has defined a supermarket chain as one that operates five or more supermarkets.
The second annual work program is a slimmed down version of the draft released last month.
That document included the livestock and bulk grain sectors among retail, cash-in-transit and linehaul (intrastate and interstate operations exceeding 500km).
Livestock and bulk grain have been removed from the RSRT’s agenda as specific areas to be investigated.
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) wanted the tribunal to include the fuel and gas sector in its second work program. Acton says the TWU can make an application for the RSRT to consider.
The program does not include any information on when the tribunal will turn its attention to pay rates. The only information the industry has received is that the issue will be looked at in “future proceedings”.
The order released yesterday, known as the Road Transport and Distribution and Long Distance Operations Road Safety Remuneration Order 2014, will take effect on May 1 next year and run until April 30, 2018.
It imposes new conditions on companies in the transport supply chain, including 30-day payment terms for contractors.
Companies must also implement safe driving plans, drug and alcohol policies and written contracts.