Midlands sets pay level
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• Talks are due to resume in the Midlands next week to thrash out a pay deal for drivers which could act as a benchmark for settlements across the country.
A 3.3% increase adding 20p an hour for drivers on .£6 an hour was rejected at the initial meeting of the West Midlands Joint Industrial Council (JIC) at the beginning of this month.
Jimmy Hill, Midlands road transport chairman for the Transport & General Workers' Union, expects employers to be far more generous following the tax concessions to hauliers announced in the pm-Budget statement.
But John Hancox, of Dudley-based Hancox Haulage and chairman of the JIC, sa: "1 don't think there is a haulier out there w can afford to pay an increase. Small a medium ones especiz are on the wire."
The present thr€ year deal expires at t end of this year. It involv a phased increase tt created a top rate of an hour. This increases by 11 an hour wh more than 50 hours a week are worked.
The West Midlands is one of the few regio left to retain a JIC, so any settlement is likely influence deals over a much wider area.