Calor drivers back down on contracts
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• A strike threat by 363 Calor Gas workers has evaporated after all but a handful of employees accepted personal contracts with the company.
The development effectively excludes the Transport & General Workers Union from future wage negotiations. However, the TGWU will be able to represent individuals on other terms and conditions of employment.
More than 350 of the drivers and ancillary plant operators have agreed terms with Calor Gas despite having approved industrial action by ballot.
TGWU national secretary of road transport Danny Bryan claims the staff were intimidated into accepting personal contracts: "They were given a bribe of an extra week's wages for people who signed and the threat of notice for people who did not sign."
Calor Gas employees accepted an increased obligation for seven-day working in return for a basic salary increase of up to 7%. Holiday pay was reduced. El Fifty employees at the company's third-party distribution subsidiary, Calor Transport, will meet TGWU representatives this week to discuss a new annual rate to replace the existing deal which expires next month.