Stobart and SIPTU

Park Royal

There is word of problems between Stobart and SIPTU so far a general grievance is mentioned , listed below....
"
In a statement on Friday, SIPTU sector organiser Karan O’Loughlin, said the drivers would strike on Thursday to highlight their concerns although she did not expand on the specifics of the grievances.
“Eddie Stobart could solve its industrial relations problems by just listening to its drivers and doing something about the health and safety concerns they are raising,” she said.
“What the company don’t get is that their drivers have no alternative but to stop work in order to highlight their grievances. They are driving the length and breadth of the country and are tired from excessive working. They know this can’t continue and so should Eddie Stobart.” "

Now pardon me for asking but I understood we had a "SAFETY, HEALTH AND WELFARE AT WORK ACT 2005" with employees to participate in drawing up the company Safety Plan , etc etc, not to mention EU regulations on drivers hours........

and Dept inspectors checking on Transport firms are complying with the various regulations........

...so how could there be excessive working?????

Are the Department Inspectors doing their job, have the company got their Safety plan in place and are they implementing it??...have the employees representatives done their job??...

Has the company an Operating Officer. a Safety Officer......( directors responsible in law??).....

Find it strange there would be concerns about excessive working in a well run transport company in this day and age......but perhaps there is a simple explanation...?

coylemj

This is classic union vs. employer propoganda, I can't see any legal issues given that as you pointed out the DoT is inspecting tachographs or whatever logs there are on trucks these days.

Unfortunately transport is a cuthroat business; moving Corn Flakes from A to B doesn't involve any value-add so the employees feel the cold wind of competition. If you work in the security or contract cleaning business you're pretty much in the same boat, you're always working under the current contract which can be renewed or not depending on how low your employer tenders next time around.

Just ask the drivers who used to shift Dunnes Stores chilled goods around the country. They worked for a company called Whelans who as I understand it owned a piece of land somewhere which they sold for a large profit during the Celtic Tiger and which caused a spike in the company's annual profits. Sadly for the workers, Margaret Heffernan got it into her head that the company was making so much money that they must be ripping her off so she pulled the contract and a whole heap of drivers were laid off.

bigroad

This is not about stobart /siptu .this is about driver welfare.We are talking about drivers earning 9euro an hour and working a 60hour week on a nighttime shift .Start times changed from day to day.work locations changed from day to day.Forced holidays to suit the company roster.Sackings for not working the no5 shift when 54 hours are already done.

blueythebear

bigroad wrote: »

This is not about stobart /siptu .this is about driver welfare.We are talking about drivers earning 9euro an hour and working a 60hour week on a nighttime shift .Start times changed from day to day.work locations changed from day to day.Forced holidays to suit the company roster.Sackings for not working the no5 shift when 54 hours are already done.

If drivers feel that they have a legitimate grievance and that this Employer is not complying with the law, then they have only one option really and that is to make a claim to the relevant Courts or Tribunals. SIPTU would be able to do so on their behalf.

Scottie99

coylemj wrote: »

I can't see any legal issues given that as you pointed out the DoT is inspecting tachographs or whatever logs there are on trucks these days

I read somewhere they tell driver to phone in for there start times. Working Time Directive issue - This means a technical breach of the Tacho law ( Break Time)

Park Royal

bigroad wrote: »

This is not about stobart /siptu .this is about driver welfare.We are talking about drivers earning 9euro an hour and working a 60hour week on a nighttime shift .Start times changed from day to day.work locations changed from day to day.Forced holidays to suit the company roster.Sackings for not working the no5 shift when 54 hours are already done.

Dear bigroad, are you saying the Department are not doing their job ,

checking that regulations are being complied with...? If so why has no

contact been made with the Department Inspectors...by SIPTU etc drivers

individually ?

As regards annual leave as I understand things , this is also governed by

law.....is the law being flouted in this regards also?......if so why are these

breaches not also being reported to the Department...??

GINA DUBLIN

Blueythebear, Stobart Drivers have already taken the company to the Labour COurt on several occasions. Stobart are refusing to comply with the LRC recommendations.

The Drivers are being bullied into not taking any action by threat of sacking. they work six hours non stop without any break (which is against the law and dangerous).

Stobart are trying to push out the ex. Tesco drivers to make way for English Drivers coming over on cheaper wages.

donkey balls

I don't work for stobart but I have worked in the transport industry for over 15 years in a number of roles from driver to ops mgmt,What seems to happen alot with some UK companies who come here to set up operations is that they go by their UK employee acts and also H&S which is wrong as we have our own SI to deal with these issues.
I also happen to know a driver working for stobart on average he does in excess of 60hrs per week in order to make a half decent living he told me one day that at the end of the week he does be fatiqued from the hours he has worked,Now I know most people will say is all the drivers just do is to steer the truck and it's easy how many people on here do on average a 15hr. day on a weekly basis?falling asleep at the wheel is seemingly one kf the biggest factors in RTC today according to the RSA apart from the poor wage on over to these drivers they at least deserve a proper roster with adequate rest in between shifts.
There are companies who give their drivers either a day off after working a 15hr day or bring them in the following morning on a later shift and also finish early i.e work a normal 8hr day I was also informed of the heavy handed tactics used recently by stobart mgmt and have to say as ex ops manager there is no way either my self or my shift supervisors would carry on like the stobart mgmt have.

Slig

As an agency driver for stobarts maybe my experience is different, and maybe its the same in other firms but the methods that Stobart use to keep their costs down put excessive stress on the drivers.

The store location and delivery size governs the days work the driver gets. Stobart then plans the route and assigns the drivers to start work at the most efficent time. That can sometimes mean a 14 hour day followed by a 9 hours rest period (including travel to and from the depot, getting something to eat, making the following days lunch, taking calls from Stobarts questioning your days work, sleeping etc.) before being assigned another potential 14 hour day. There is no allowance made for night time or day time work and we are severely discouraged from deviating from the assigned scheduling. Pulling over and taking a few minutes rest outside of the assigned rest period or resting for longer than 51 minutes will get you a severe reprimand either when we return to the depot or over the phone.
I've worked in alot of different industries over the years from farming to production line to office work and working long hours is nothing new to me. I've pulled all-nighters in many jobs before but there is a substantial difference in falling asleep behing your desk and falling asleep at the wheel of a 40 ton articulated truck. You just have to look at the Stobart fleet, and damage that is visable on all the units and trailers to know that drivers fully arent concentrating on their work

Obviously having the flexability to organise their fleet to correspond with the differing logistical requirements on a daily basis allows Stobart to reduce wastage and is probably the reason they run so efficently but it is all done off the backs of the drivers.