Hackney cab drivers who take disabled children to school plan strike in row over split shifts

The group of cab drivers who work for Hackney council are planning a strike
Olivia Tobin29 October 2018

Dozens of minicab drivers who drive hundreds of vulnerable disabled children to school in east London are threatening to strike over a row about split shift payments.

The 32 drivers in Hackney are responsible for taking 240 children with special needs to and from school but argue they are not being paid fairly by Hackney Council.

Unite the Union said there are more than 70 schools, nurseries and play centres in Hackney who use this service.

If a strike goes ahead, it could bring severe disruption with parents of many vulnerable children possibly having to look for other travel arrangements to make it to school.

Unite the Union members, employed by Hackney’s council learning trust, have voted by 100 per cent for strike action over the council’s alleged “refusal to discuss the split shift payment”, the union said.

A spokeswoman for Hackney Council said the local authority are happy to meet with the union to discuss.

Unite regional officer, Onay Kasab, said drivers are obliged to work from the morning until the afternoon because of school times.

The union claims Hackney drivers are not paid a split shift wage for doing so like the union believes other taxi drivers in London are.

He said: “The dispute is about the employer’s refusal to even discuss a pay claim we have made for our 32 members to compensate them for working split shifts. We want the claim backdated to April 2018 and updated each year going forward.

“The drivers and escorts do the school run in the morning with the children, then return to work for the school run in the afternoon, hence the split shift.

“They are part of a national collective agreement which states that unions and employers can negotiate and agree such a payment.

“The mean-spirited refusal of the council bosses to even discuss this legitimate claim led to this unanimous vote for strike action – an indication of the depth of anger.”

Mr Kasab explained that each driver is responsible for driving multiple children, often in a bus.

The spokeswoman for the council said: "We never want to see strike action, especially when it affects our most vulnerable children, and we would urge the union to call it off. We understand that 27 members of staff were entitled to vote in this ballot, 18 of whom voted to strike. This is out of a total schools transport staff of 69.

"We met with the union in May and provided our response in June; we maintain the position we took then: the current scale of pay and hours - which is well within and often higher than neighbouring boroughs – is fair and we do not believe there is a case for a split shift enhancement. We are of course happy to meet again with the union to discuss.

"We reviewed our transport service in 2014 and all drivers signed up to be employed on a split shift arrangement on 30/36-hour contracts. The vast majority were already working split shifts prior to this.

"We recruited more than 40 passenger assistants from September 2016 working to a job description that included split shifts – this was agreed by the unions earlier in the year.

"The action could affect 240 children with special needs. However, we would do all we could to ensure those in most need, and with least mobility, were catered for. "

Strike action, Mr Kasab added, was “the last thing” drivers wanted to do.

He said: “Strikes are the last thing our dedicated members want to do because of the vulnerable group they look after, but they feel they have been forced into a corner by an authority that won’t abide by a national agreement it has signed up to.

“We strongly believe that there are workers in the same position across the country.

The union said there has been no fixed date for the planned strike, if it is to go ahead.

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