Drivers at Marshalls are set to vote on industrial action in a dispute over unequal pay.
The Huddersfield Daily Examiner reports "Union Unite said it expects to ballot drivers who deliver to builders’ merchants from 14 Marshalls manufacturing sites UK-wide – and warned that industrial action could cause severe disruption to the building trade."
"Marshalls’ two biggest customers are Travis Perkins with 1,900 outlets and Jewson with more than 600 branches. The proposed ballot comes as retailers gear up for an expected rise in seasonal demand for stone paving from home improvers and builders."
"Unite said the overtime dispute was given “extra piquancy” by the fact that Marshalls chief executive Martyn Coffey received an 87% rise in his remuneration package last year, taking his pay to more than £2m."
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A total of 110 drivers, members of Unite, the country’s largest union, are voting on whether to take strike action or industrial action short of a strike in a dispute about overtime pay. The ballot closes on Tuesday, May 17.
But the dispute took a new twist after Unite claimed that a manager at Marshalls’ depot in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, swore at a group of about 24 drivers while addressing them on the ballot – with all but three of the drivers walking out in protest.
Marshalls has accused the union of taking “a confrontational stance” regarding the overtime pay issue.
From the Huddersfield Examiner: http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/marshalls-driver...