The Transport Workers Union has criticised the Coalition's plan to review a body tasked with setting pay rates for truck drivers, and called the party's new industrial relations policy “deeply misguided”.
In the Coalition's new IR policy released this week, the party made a commitment to review the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal.
The independent tribunal was set up last year in an effort to improve safety by dealing with wage and employment issues and disputes.
In announcing the new policy Opposition leader Tony Abbott said the Productivity Commission would re-examine the body as part of a wider review of the Fair Work Act.
“We do reserve the right to make changes to that, given that we've already had union officials publicly say that there is no link between rates and safety and that there are far better ways to ensure that, as far as is humanly possible, we have safety in our transport system,” he said.
TWU national secretary Tony Sheldon said twenty years of research showed a “direct relationship” between pay and conditions for truck drivers.
“It is disappointing that the Coalition’s policy on Fair Work Laws has taken a deeply misguided position on the issues of safe rates of pay for truck drivers and safety on our roads. Hundreds of people are killed in truck crashes each year and thousands more are injured. More than twenty years of evidence has shown time and again the link between pay and related conditions for truck drivers and safety on our roads,” he said.
“The argument that pushing truckies to the edge doesn’t place lives at risk fails the test of common sense. Truck drivers just want to do their job and get home safely, but the aggressive behaviour of major clients like Coles means that drivers are constantly under pressure to cut corners and push the envelope.”