Labour Research May 2017

Health & Safety Matters

End social dumping, says RMT


The RMT transport union has called for an end to “social dumping” in the road transport sector following a BBC investigation. 


This found that lorry drivers from eastern Europe, moving goods for contractors to household names including furniture giant IKEA, are being forced to live out of their cabs for months at a time. The drivers’ plight is a result of poverty pay undercutting minimum wage levels. 


The BBC found that companies were exploiting loopholes in EU rules guaranteeing host nation wage rates for workers posted abroad, and that some drivers were paid as little as £3 an hour. 


RMT general secretary Mick Cash criticised the lack of sanctions against firms “that actively encourage social dumping on an industrial scale, in a relentless drive to the bottom in the pursuit of corporate profits”.

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-calls-for-an-end-to-social-dumping-in-road-transport