Union campaigns on fatigue and drivers' hours

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"Fatigue Kills!" was the original slogan for the ITF Road Transport Action Week and it remains a serious problem.

The principal objective of the Campaign is to put in place and enforce acceptable limits on drivers’ working hours and rest period. The purpose is to achieve limits on drivers’ hours which respond to the safety, health and social demands of drivers and which promote the general public interest by contributing towards improved road safety.

Road transport workers’ demands include:

Respect for all road transport workers
Better pay and conditions
Shorter working hours with more breaks for fair wages
Waiting time counted as work time
Safe resting places with proper facilities
No delays at border points
Adequate rest days at home
Training for a higher standard of licence
Action by governments and authorities to set a deterrent level of penalties; enforce driving hours legislation; enforce vehicle maintenance standards; improve the roads; prosecute rogue companies; remove illegal trucks and drivers from the roads

There have been some concrete achievements with unions in some countries having won new legislation and improvements in working conditions for their members.

Can your union use the Action Week to raise awareness on fatigue and lobby for acceptable limits on drivers’ working hours and rest periods to be put in place and enforced?

ETF Working Time Directive Campaign
Since 2008, the ETF and its road transport unions have been campaigning to fight for the rejection of a European Commission proposal for the revision of the Working Time Directive for mobile personnel in road transport (Directive 2002/15/EC). The proposal intends to introduce an 86-hour working week for self-employed professional drivers. The ETF campaign is one for safer roads for the European citizens and better jobs for all professional drivers. Campaign activities have included demonstrations by ETF road transport unions in Brussels on 2 March 2009 and 7 October 2009 as well as lobbying of the European Institutions. The European Commission proposal was rejected twice by the European Parliament in the first half of 2009, both in Committee and in plenary. The European Parliament Plenary, however, sent it back to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs who, on 29 September, voted – by one vote difference – to keep the proposal alive. On 1 December, ETF and ver.di representatives spoke before the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, within a hearing on the revision of the working time directive. An overwhelming majority of the MEPs expressed their support for the inclusion of self-employed drivers within the scope of the rules and questioned, amongst other things, the ability of the current proposal to ensure an effective control of the phenomenon of false self-employment amongst professional drivers. In 2010, the ETF launched a campaign to raise public awareness of the impact – on the safety of road users – of long working hours for commercial drivers.

See the ETF webpage for more information >>>

Australia
In November 2008, the TWU in Australia organised a “Drive for Safe Rates” campaign demanding a fair remuneration system that gives drivers the ability to obtain a safe rate of pay rather than incentive-based payments and systems which exert pressure on the truck driver to get to their destinations quickly. To emphasize their message, a truck loaded with 275 pairs of shoes, representing the lives lost in heavy vehicle incidents in the 12 months to March 2008, set off on a road trip from Queensland through New South Wales and Victoria to Adelaide. According to the union, as a result of the campaign, the National Transport Commission has recommended the government adopt all of the union’s recommendations for safe systems of payment for transport workers.

See the TWU webpage for more information >>>

Brazil
A court in Brazil ruled in February 2008 that companies should limit truckers’ working day to eight hours. The preliminary injunction, which was imposed by prosecutors in Cuiaba in Mato Grasso, applies to transport companies across Brazil. It responds to evidence that trucks are involved in 70 per cent of accidents on Mato Grasso highways; that some 51 per cent of truckers passing through Mato Grosso use or have used drugs to stay awake and that 46 per cent work more than 16 hours a day. The injunction outlines that tachographs are to be used to monitor how long a driver is working. Where limits are exceeded, fines amounting to US$1000 will be imposed on the company employing the driver. The injunction also applies to owner-drivers. Organisations representing employers and owner-drivers are seeking to overturn the injunction. An agreement is due to be signed with the Labour Ministry, the Labour General Attorney and the Federal Road Police to ensure the decision is implemented. The ITF-affiliated road transport union, Confederaçao Nacional dos Trabalhadores em Transportes Terrestres (CNTTT) and unions representing transport workers at local level issued a statement expressing their support for the move. They are lobbying for effective monitoring to ensure compliance with the decision.

Read ITF News Online, 28 February 2008 >>>

Israel
The ITF-affiliated Histadrut Transport Workers' Union was in dispute with trucking employers over its refusal to increase truckers’ wages in January 2010. Truckers were making up the shortfall by driving over nine hours per day. The union had negotiated a collective bargaining agreement that covers truck drivers who are employed by the Israel Road Transport Board (ITB). However, some 80 per cent of drivers in Israel remain unorganised for fear of employer reprisals and many small companies exist whose employers are not members of the ITF and therefore the collective bargaining agreement is not valid for them. As a result the Histadrut Transport Workers’ Union stepped up a truckers' organising campaign and called for the adoption of the ITF road transport campaign which makes clear ‘fatigue kills’. The Histadrut Transport Workers’ Union also saw off an ITB attempt to increase the number of working hours from 12 to 14.

Read ITF News Online, 6 January 2010 >>>

Kenya
Minibus drivers across Kenya staged a three-day strike in January 2010 in protest over harassment and extortion, which they allege traffic police officials are carrying out. The minibus or “matatu” operators, represented by the Matatu Drivers and Conductors Welfare Association (MDCWA), walked out on strike on 4 January over traffic police intimidation, causing widespread disruption. The operators also raised concerns about stringent revenue targets set by minibus owners. These they say force operators to work extra hours and drive at excessive speeds to make up time. Following government assurances that the workers’ grievances would be looked into, the strike was called off. However, the MDCWA has pledged to carry out further strike action if the ministry of transport and the traffic police department fail to meet with the operators to discuss their concerns.

Read ITF News Online, 13 January 2010 >>>

Poland
Truck drivers were straned for days at 14 Polish border points at the borders with Belarus, Russia and Ukraine in January 2008, following a protest by Polish customs officials over pay. The long queues left truckers without access to adequate facilities and two were reported to have died – one as a result of a fire that was sparked in his truck; another was believed to have suffered a fatal heart attack. One trucker from the Netherlands told the ITF: “There is nowhere to get any food and no sanitation for these international drivers. And the drivers have not been able to sleep because it is stop and go traffic. In any case there are no rest facilities.” The ITF’s European arm, the ETF, raised the issue of facilities for truckers at all European borders during a social dialogue meeting with European Union authorities on 7 February. It was reported in mid February that the situation with queues at the Polish borders had improved.

Read ITF News Online, 6 February 2008 >>>

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