ADJ-00006386

Complainant

Respondent

Parties

A Driver

A Transport Company

Act

Complaint/Dispute Reference No.

Date of Receipt

Dispute seeking adjudication by the Workplace Relations Commission under section 13 of the Industrial Relations Act, 1969

CA-00008716-001

12/12/2016

The complainant seeks restoration of a safe driving allowance.

The complainant has been employed as a Driver with the respondent company since January 2007.     He was involved in an accident on 21/8/2014, as a result of which he had his safe driving award for 2014 witheld.     On the day in question, the complainant was carefully manoeuvring the bus past a car that was not parked within parking lines. It is the strong belief of the complainant that the driver of the vehicle pulled out and clipped the bus with her wing mirror.   The CCTV was not working on the bus on that day so the unsubstantiated claim of the motorist was preferred to that of the bus driver. The damage to the wing mirror amounted to €50. The loss to the driver amounted to €250.

The withholding of the safe driving award was appealed but the respondent did not uphold the appeal. It is submitted that the amount of the award, (€250) should be restored to the complainant given the fact that no scientific or technical measurement was employed to judge the incident as being “preventable”.

The respondent trains all their Drivers in Defensive Driving, New Vehicle familiarisation, Advanced Driving and many other training courses. Safety is paramount and it is essential that the highest standards of driving are maintained at all times. The company operates an annual Safe Driving Award scheme where eligible Drivers receive a Safe Driving Award Certificate in addition to a voucher for €250. In order to be eligible, among other requirements, Drivers must have driven at least 200 days in the year and must not have had any preventable accident(s) for the year concerned.     The collision which the Driver complainant was involved in was that he was turning left and made contact with a car parked on his left damaging the right wing mirror of the car. He completed an Accident/Incident form and the details were discussed with him by the Chief Clerk at the time. A hearing to determine culpability was heard.   CCTV footage was not available for the incident due to technical difficulties. However, there was no doubt that the collision had occurred as per the report from the Driver.   The outcome of the hearing was that he was found culpable and informed he would not be receiving the safe driving award that year. He lodged an appeal almost 12 months later although the appeal period was 7 days. However the company heard his appeal but upheld the original decision.   A grievance was heard on the matter by the Personnel Manager and the grievance was not upheld. It is argued that the respondent dealt fully and fairly through procedures and as the complainant clearly stated that he caught the mirror of a parked car, the respondent’s decision in this case was correct.