The Independent Contractors Association has attacked the Government and the country’s main transport union for setting up a new tribunal to monitor the trucking industry, saying it will put more pressure on drivers and drive down their rates of pay.
The criticism comes as transportation minister Anthony Albanese is set to announce the new initiative today, which will set up a new Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal to help stamp out speeding, fatigue and other dangerous practices in the trucking industry.
But Ken Phillips, chief executive of the Independent Contractors Association, says the panel comes due to pressure from the Transport Workers’ Union.
“Pardon my scepticism. The TWU has been running a campaign on driver safety for a heck of a long time, and their target is they want a replication of the New South Wales style laws and want to make that national.”
“The problem is that those laws are price controls on the industry. They discriminate against self-employed drivers and push down their rates of pay.”
Phillips says the TWU is attempting to cover not only employee drivers, but contract drivers as well. The union itself has referenced a survey that showed 27% of truckers felt they had to drive too fast in order to meet their employment obligations, saying too many businesses are pressuring their drivers to meet unrealistic deadlines.
As a result, the union implies these drivers are being pressured to break road rules. But they want to cover contractors as well, not just employees.
The move to cover contractors also comes as the Fair Work Ombudsman has concluded an initial investigation into sham contracting, while the Australian Taxation Office is undertaking a similar investigation as well.
The new panel will cover owner-drivers as well as employees, and will be set up as a new entity. The tribunal will include some members of Fair Work, along with others who are experts in work, health and safety.
“Where the tribunal determines that a sector of the industry has poor safety outcomes as a result of low remuneration, the tribunal will be able to make a Road Safety Remuneration Order to improve the on-road safety outcomes for drivers operating in that sector,” both Albanese and workplace relations minister Chris Evans said in a joint statement.
The panel is set to begin on July 1 2012, with Albanese also noting the truck sector has the highest incidence of fatal injuries, with 25 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2008-09. In 2010, the total cost of heavy vehicle related accidents involving fatalities and serious injuries was $2.7 billion.
The new panel will complement existing initiatives, including the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.
Phillips says it’s important truckers remain safe but says the two issues – safety and pay – don’t need to be connected.
“The whole thing about safety being tied to pay rates, it’s entirely spurious, pro-monopolistic, and completely illegitimate.”
“The issue of road safety is a road safety issue, not a pay rate issue. The TWU should spend its time supporting the transport sector in ensuring drivers are not taking drugs and complying with the law.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
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