Fighting threat to jobs and truckie businesses

THE fight is on to protect the livelihoods of owner driver truckies whose future hangs in the balance over a disastrous ruling by a tribunal established by the former Gillard Labor government and stacked with Labor appointees.The Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, a body set up by the previous Labor Government, has ruled that owner driver truckies can only be engaged by clients at a minimum payment rate, which is above that of employee truck drivers, effectively pricing them out of business.While the new rate is set to take effect from 4 April, both owner drivers and the Federal Liberal National Government have intervened to request the start date be pushed back until next year to enable further consideration of a move that could put thousands of owner drivers out of business.