By Annabelle Regan and Sophie McInnerny <\/p>\n
Posted February 07, 2017 15:31:09 <\/p>\n
Transport groups have expressed frustration at being left out of a safety summit organised by the Transport Workers Union. <\/p>\n
The national summit of truckies, academics and politicians looked at a safety report by Macquarie University which was critical of the abolition of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. <\/p>\n
It was abolished last year amid intense criticism from owner-operator businesses concerned it would send them broke by increasing pay rates. <\/p>\n
The president of South Australian Road Transport Association, Steve Shearer, was annoyed that his and other transport organisations were not invited or not told about last week's summit. <\/p>\n
They included the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator, Australian Trucking Association and the National Road Transport Association. <\/p>\n
Mr Shearer claimed they had been left out. <\/p>\n
\"The union only wants to work with people who agree precisely with what the union wants,\" he said. <\/p>\n
\"It looks very much like the unions had a summit with its friends and nobody else, now that's not a credible summit. <\/p>\n
\"It wouldn't deal properly with the issues.\" <\/p>\n
The TWU said other transport groups were invited but could not attend the summit. <\/p>\n
It had arranged later meetings to inform them of the summit's outcomes while acknowledging their importance toward a safer heavy transport industry. <\/p>\n
The Macquarie University report said a tribunal was needed to eliminate tight scheduling, unpaid work and inadequate pay rates. <\/p>\n
The report included a survey of truck drivers which found 80 per cent worked more than 50 hours per week with some working more than 80 hours. <\/p>\n
It also found some owner-drivers were reluctant to refuse an unsafe load. <\/p>\n
Current regulations meant a driver could log up to 72 driving-hours in a week while extra accreditation provided for a driver to log up to 84 hours in a seven-day period. <\/p>\n
Mr Shearer said the weekly limits were created with help from fatigue researchers and had seen serious injury and fatality rates fall dramatically since their introduction. <\/p>\n
Topics: unions, occupational-health-and-safety, road-transport, sa, australia <\/p>\n
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Industry calls for better cooperation from TWU on safety for truckies - ABC Online<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Annabelle Regan and Sophie McInnerny Posted February 07, 2017 15:31:09 Transport groups have expressed frustration at being left out of a safety summit organised by the Transport Workers Union. The national summit of truckies, academics and politicians looked at a safety report by Macquarie University which was critical of the abolition of the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal. It was abolished last year amid intense criticism from owner-operator businesses concerned it would send them broke by increasing pay rates Continue reading