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Open email,of events and the reasonable requests asked for at ACAS,
Brothers/Sisters
By now you would have received the latest correspondence from our company,I would like to put my views across on behalf of our Union as I think that as a sub group member involved in the talks at ACAS you will get a very true reflection of events, I have no doubt that this email will find its way back to management as some of my previous emails have, I will therefore give you a factual reply as I always do.
Firstly, the companies involved in these talks all decided to NOT PAY your sub group members to attend talks to stop a potential strike, that's how serious they wanted to find mutual ground, quite disgusting behaviour by ALL companies to say the least.
Secondly, it took the companies involved to produce a document half a page long, 4 hours, quite incredible really, do they want these talks to resolve the problems or is this a formality they have decided to partake in to look good in the media, because 4 hours for 2 paragraphs is a start admittedly but a slow one at that to say the least.
Thirdly,Health and Safety and training is something ALL companies SHOULD have, they are not doing us favours by updating the ACOPs regs, we deliver fuel, explosive liquid, we should have excellent training and health and safety, facts are not all companies are behind this painted picture that states that their health and safety is up to the highest standards.
Fourthly,We need a portable pension, we need one pension that gives us a living when we retire, money purchase schemes are the lowest level, Final salary the highest level, we have asked for a Defined Benefit scheme based on average earnings, its called asking for the middle, not the top as we should have working for the multi billion pound companies that we do, its called meeting in the middle.
Fifthly,We are being quoted in the papers as earning 47k for 37 hours????that's £24.42 per hour, we all know the average Basic Wage is 34k, yet we have to work up to 60 + hours, we asked for a minimum wage of £12.40 per hour Mon-Fri days, it was knocked back, the companies are saying they can not implement a minimum wage across Industry as it is out of their control to do so, correct they cant, BUT they can implement a wage that they will agree to as Individuals to not fall below and at £12.40 being knocked back, that tells me they want us on less in the future, WHY so they can compete with the low cost operator by becoming one themselves, after all if they wont let the Union have a minimum standards that they don't sign up to, how can the union get the low cost operators to do so?how can the Union get membership in these areas that need it without the tools to do so, more importantly how can we put a floor on how far down the scale we can be taken,we need a minimum standards contract inclusive of hours worked,pay,holiday,sickness and redundancy, the big question is WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT???
Sixthly, I will tell you why- Fuel products are very hard to follow in terms of volumes, volumes decrease and increase daily, so lets give you a scenario, Drivers on a contract are working away and week by week the volumes decrease, slowly so as to not be to blatant about it, standby becomes more regular, drivers get concerned over their jobs, all of a sudden one day the drivers are called in by management and told "sorry lads due to the volumes decreasing we need to make redundancies" you are then in a redundancy situation, time goes by, you take your redundancy and you get a job on a agency, low and behold you are delivering to sites you used to deliver to,WHY because the bigger contractors have used the low cost operator to deliver fuel to create a redundancy situation by decreasing volumes,6 months later you may be offered your job back with your old contractor, great you think, not so great when you are offered the very same job on inferior terms and conditions and pay, this is called, welcome to the white fleets, or as some like to call it flexible resources, contractors have found ways around TUPE, they are using them, where??? try looking at Grangemouth on the TESCO contract, 6 drivers redundant, yet low cost operators working out the very same depot doing the work the TESCO drivers were doing to the very same site, look at Stanlow with SHELL, redundancies, those drivers made redundant working for a agency through TURNERS delivering to the same sites they used to, I also am led to believe some of them have been offered jobs back on SHELL on the new flexible resource terms and conditions, far cry from what they were on.
Many Supermarket drivers feel they are safe, Supermarkets are a way forward with fuel sales, increasing volumes, new forecourts, how very wrong you are if you believe that, Supermarkets have started to change their fuel supplier more regularly, one day its VOPAK next were in ESSO, where are we going to be next year, will it be a location near you? do you have a good redundancy package if not? do the company operate a good relocation package if you want to follow your job and move? the answer to both them important questions are NO, the only answer that is YES, is to a minimum standards agreement with security and stability put in it,we work long hours, unsociable hours, we have families with young children so the child care fees would out strip our wives working, therefore 1 wage needs to make up for 2, we do a dangerous job,we take pride in what we do, BUT most importantly we work for the richest companies in the world, so what is the problem with giving us STABILITY through minimum standards?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
In Solidarity
G#### H######
Brothers/Sisters
By now you would have received the latest correspondence from our company,I would like to put my views across on behalf of our Union as I think that as a sub group member involved in the talks at ACAS you will get a very true reflection of events, I have no doubt that this email will find its way back to management as some of my previous emails have, I will therefore give you a factual reply as I always do.
Firstly, the companies involved in these talks all decided to NOT PAY your sub group members to attend talks to stop a potential strike, that's how serious they wanted to find mutual ground, quite disgusting behaviour by ALL companies to say the least.
Secondly, it took the companies involved to produce a document half a page long, 4 hours, quite incredible really, do they want these talks to resolve the problems or is this a formality they have decided to partake in to look good in the media, because 4 hours for 2 paragraphs is a start admittedly but a slow one at that to say the least.
Thirdly,Health and Safety and training is something ALL companies SHOULD have, they are not doing us favours by updating the ACOPs regs, we deliver fuel, explosive liquid, we should have excellent training and health and safety, facts are not all companies are behind this painted picture that states that their health and safety is up to the highest standards.
Fourthly,We need a portable pension, we need one pension that gives us a living when we retire, money purchase schemes are the lowest level, Final salary the highest level, we have asked for a Defined Benefit scheme based on average earnings, its called asking for the middle, not the top as we should have working for the multi billion pound companies that we do, its called meeting in the middle.
Fifthly,We are being quoted in the papers as earning 47k for 37 hours????that's £24.42 per hour, we all know the average Basic Wage is 34k, yet we have to work up to 60 + hours, we asked for a minimum wage of £12.40 per hour Mon-Fri days, it was knocked back, the companies are saying they can not implement a minimum wage across Industry as it is out of their control to do so, correct they cant, BUT they can implement a wage that they will agree to as Individuals to not fall below and at £12.40 being knocked back, that tells me they want us on less in the future, WHY so they can compete with the low cost operator by becoming one themselves, after all if they wont let the Union have a minimum standards that they don't sign up to, how can the union get the low cost operators to do so?how can the Union get membership in these areas that need it without the tools to do so, more importantly how can we put a floor on how far down the scale we can be taken,we need a minimum standards contract inclusive of hours worked,pay,holiday,sickness and redundancy, the big question is WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT???
Sixthly, I will tell you why- Fuel products are very hard to follow in terms of volumes, volumes decrease and increase daily, so lets give you a scenario, Drivers on a contract are working away and week by week the volumes decrease, slowly so as to not be to blatant about it, standby becomes more regular, drivers get concerned over their jobs, all of a sudden one day the drivers are called in by management and told "sorry lads due to the volumes decreasing we need to make redundancies" you are then in a redundancy situation, time goes by, you take your redundancy and you get a job on a agency, low and behold you are delivering to sites you used to deliver to,WHY because the bigger contractors have used the low cost operator to deliver fuel to create a redundancy situation by decreasing volumes,6 months later you may be offered your job back with your old contractor, great you think, not so great when you are offered the very same job on inferior terms and conditions and pay, this is called, welcome to the white fleets, or as some like to call it flexible resources, contractors have found ways around TUPE, they are using them, where??? try looking at Grangemouth on the TESCO contract, 6 drivers redundant, yet low cost operators working out the very same depot doing the work the TESCO drivers were doing to the very same site, look at Stanlow with SHELL, redundancies, those drivers made redundant working for a agency through TURNERS delivering to the same sites they used to, I also am led to believe some of them have been offered jobs back on SHELL on the new flexible resource terms and conditions, far cry from what they were on.
Many Supermarket drivers feel they are safe, Supermarkets are a way forward with fuel sales, increasing volumes, new forecourts, how very wrong you are if you believe that, Supermarkets have started to change their fuel supplier more regularly, one day its VOPAK next were in ESSO, where are we going to be next year, will it be a location near you? do you have a good redundancy package if not? do the company operate a good relocation package if you want to follow your job and move? the answer to both them important questions are NO, the only answer that is YES, is to a minimum standards agreement with security and stability put in it,we work long hours, unsociable hours, we have families with young children so the child care fees would out strip our wives working, therefore 1 wage needs to make up for 2, we do a dangerous job,we take pride in what we do, BUT most importantly we work for the richest companies in the world, so what is the problem with giving us STABILITY through minimum standards?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
In Solidarity
G#### H######