Drivers in IKEA’s contracting chain are working on the road for weeks and months on end, earning inferior wages, living out of their trucks and subject to the abuse of social, labour and safety rules.
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The action by members of ver.di and the Swedish Transport Workers union came as another ITF union scored a victory in the courts against a transport company used by IKEA.
In a case backed by the FNV, the District Court of the Northern Netherlands exposed an IKEA contractor that uses foreign truck drivers from affiliated companies to cut costs.
The Court found that the arrangement was set up to evade the Dutch Collective Labour Agreement (CLA) – with drivers paid a basic wage eight times lower than that set in the CLA.
The court ordered an end to this and to the practice of drivers living in their trucks during weekly rest breaks and awarded back pay to three Dutch drivers.
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New ITF head of inland transport, Noel Coard, said that IKEA must face up to its responsibilities: “This cannot go on. The top of the contracting chain needs to be held to account. European Commission president Juncker said that Europe is not the Wild West and we agree. IKEA can expect our trade unions to keep exposing the actions of their contractors and to continue to hold the company responsible for them.
“Economic employers like IKEA control the economy on our roads. Transport companies are under constant threat from the top of the supply chain: break the law or lose the contract. But IKEA has the power to end the misery that truck drivers are living. Our door remains open and we firmly believe that IKEA can be part of the solution rather than the problem.”
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