AIRPORT AILMENTS
EDINBURGH AIRPORT PASSENGERS FORM MASSIVE QUEUE FOR TAXIS AS CAPITAL CARS DRIVERS TAKE STRIKE ACTION
Edinburgh Airport passengers were left waiting, as PH drivers striked against high charges set by Capital Cars. On Wednesday evening, 22 June, around 140 drivers for the company gathered in the feeder taxi rank at the airport to protest against charges. Seven Sevens Cars Ltd, which trades as Capital Cars, is charging 25% commis- sion, on top of extra airport charges, which drivers say is “unfair”. One cabbie, who took part in the strike, told the Evening News: “Drivers are struggling so much. We used to work for around 30 to 40 hours a week. Now, every single one of us is working 60 to 70 hours a week, just to make a living.” He said that the situation has been
made worse by the increase in fuel prices, and added: “After paying all this, we don’t have anything left”. The cab driver justified the action, say- ing: “No-one wanted to go on strike. But nobody is hearing us at the moment, nobody cares.” He has urged Stephen Rose, the com- pany’s director, to come up with a solution quickly. The striking drivers are threatening to continue the strike action if their demands are not met. A spokesperson for Capital Cars said: “I would like to apologise on behalf of the majority of our drivers being unable to attend Edinburgh Airport last night due to the disappointing action taken by a small minority of our drivers. This is not
a situation that we condone and we have been in dialogue with these drivers for some time to reach a solution. “In response to the driver’s comments of our charges being “unfair”, we don’t agree with this. Our charges haven’t changed since the start of Covid when many drivers were struggling to sur- vive. Now the average driver take home income has increased significantly past pre pandemic levels. “We have, and always will support our drivers who want to work with us going forward. We are currently conducting a survey of drivers views into our charges with the results due in the next few days, and we will be guided by those views from the majority.”
PROTEST BY 300 PH DRIVERS AT GATWICK AIRPORT THREATENED WITH INFERIOR ZERO-HOURS CONTRACTS
Unite the Union says that around 300 private hire drivers working at Gatwick Cars Ltd are being threatened with ‘fire and rehire’ and forced onto a vastly inferior zero-hours contract, which will dramatically cut their pay. The Union states that Gatwick Cars is demanding its drivers sign a zero-hours contract and will grab an eye-watering 40 per cent of the drivers’ fares. The company has informed the work- force that they have to sign the contracts by 1 July 2022 or not receive any further work. The drivers will therefore be staging a protest against the company’s plans on 1 July from 6am in the vicinity of Gatwick Airport. Many of the workers are currently part of an employment tribunal case which will determine their employment sta- tus. However, the company is pre-empting this and insisting that its commission of the drivers’ fares should
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increase from 23 per cent to 40 per cent in order to cover the drivers’ holi- day pay, pension contributions and also to increase its own commission. Unite General Secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “Gatwick Cars’ conduct is shameful. In a fire and rehire-style attack, it is combining a zero hours con- tract with a threat to sign or be sacked in under 48 hours. This behaviour brings shame to the owners of Gatwick who must step in to prevent this exploitation taking hold at the airport. “Unite will not allow this attack on our members to go unchallenged and will ensure that all possible measures are utilised to ensure justice for our taxi driver members.” Gatwick Cars Ltd operates the PHVs at the airport on a contract tendered by Gatwick Airports Limited (GAL). The drivers have repeatedly asked GAL to intervene but the company has refused to do so and the drivers believe that
GAL is trying to wash its hands of the problem. Gatwick Cars is also making it more expensive for the PHVs to operate; it is changing the policy which currently allows drivers to operate a vehicle up to seven years old and now plans to reduce that time frame to five years, making it for more expensive to oper- ate a vehicle. Unite regional officer, Andrew Stanley- Ward, said: “The planned demon- stration is just the beginning of the campaign to ensure a fair deal for our taxi/PHV driver members, this will inevitably lead to disruption at the air- port. “If Gatwick Cars won’t behave like a decent company than Gatwick Airport should make it do the right thing or strip it of the contract. Gatwick Airport tenders this contract and it has a moral duty to ensure that its taxi and PHV drivers are not exploited.”
JULY 2022
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