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Lifting the lid on dispute over 'health and safety' Union demands 27% hike in driver pay - to £54k

Published: 23:27 BST, 31 March 2012 Updated: 00:09 BST, 1 April 2012

Myth: Unite's general secretary Len McCluskey has claimed the dispute is over health and safety

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The salary of fuel-tanker drivers will soar 27 per cent to £54,000 if employers give in to the militant Unite union.

On the eve of talks at the conciliation service ACAS aimed at avoiding a damaging national strike, documents seen by The Mail on Sunday explode the myth that the dispute is over health and safety as claimed by Unite and its Left-wing general secretary Len McCluskey.

A confidential assessment of Unite’s demands by fuel-delivery bosses concludes that drivers’ average annual earnings would leap from £42,500 to £54,000 – a rise of more than seven times the inflation rate.

It reveals that meeting the union’s demands would increase employers’ costs by up to 60 per cent.

Senior oil industry managers said last night they believed Mr McCluskey was trying to mount a ‘political strike’ against David Cameron.

They claimed ‘Red Len’ was using Unite’s 2,000 fuel-tanker drivers as ‘shock troops’ to force a return to the national collective bargaining deals of the Seventies, which gave unions the muscle to call national walkouts via a single body.

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But sources claimed that Unite’s senior negotiator Diana Holland – who is also Labour Party treasurer – was keen to find a solution at ACAS without the union losing face and calling a strike, which many drivers believe may be short-lived.

A source close to the talks said: ‘Unite believed David Cameron would panic and force the oil companies to agree to their demands. But they have found he will not back down. These tactics by Unite clearly have political motives.’

Pension costs would more than double under the Unite plan. Efficiency would plummet due to additional ‘unproductive hours paid’.

Looming crisis: The threat of a strike has caused chaos on forecourts such as this one in Brighton as motorists rush to stock up on petrol

The assessment adds that the ability to cope with changes in demand from forecourts would be ‘severely hampered’ if drivers were no longer required to work flexibly.

Unite insists its strike threat is over drivers being forced by employers to rush fuel deliveries to petrol stations.

The union is seeking uniform conditions across all fuel- delivery companies, covering pensions, disciplinary procedures, training and terms of employment.

Employers’ sources say they are prepared to negotiate over health and safety, pensions and training, but will not back down on demands for national bargaining that takes no account of the size and differing operations of separate companies.

A Unite spokesman said last night: ‘Bandying about misleading figures before talks have even started suggests that the industry is not treating these negotiations seriously.’