National Secretary AA Section
Cooper House
205 Hook Road
Chessington
Surrey
KT9 1EA Paul.Maloney@gmb.org.uk
GMB take on the AA and WIN
AGAIN
UPDATED INFORMATION
AA Patrol wrongfully and unfairly dismissed
for systematic avoidance of work. See
Judgment
BRIEFING ON WORKING TIME REGULATIONS – HOLIDAY
PAY/LONG TERM SICK more>>>>
SALARY SACRIFICE
What is AA Plus?
This arrangement is more commonly known as salary sacrifice. It involves
giving up a portion of your pay equal to a deduction that would normally
be made from your pay. It can be used for things such as childcare
vouchers, or bicycle loan schemes and more recently, contributions to
work-based pension schemes.
Read More Word Doc
PDF FILEAA
Plus opt out form
“I have had a number of requests for the
above document and please note that this document is for staff employed
before 1st January 1996. For staff employed after the 1st of January 1996
the redundancy calculator is 3 weeks redundancy pay for each year of
service”. This document is your contractual right. PAUL GRAFTON Download File
‘Employment Tribunal Reserved Judgment; claimant Jayne
Wyatt, AA Hotel Inspector unfairly dismissed’ See Document
Today's decision by the Employment Social
Affairs Committee of the European Parliament to scrap the Working Time
Directive opt-out by 35 votes to 13 was welcomed by the GMB.
More >
Boris Johnson’s administration in the capital
suffered a severe blow when Tim Parker, the most senior member of his team,
quit abruptly, only weeks after taking up his post.
AA patrolmen are threatening to strike over
a pensions row.
It means motorists who pay for breakdown services could be left stranded
on roads across Scotland if the dispute is not resolved
GMB protest at cuts in
pension benefits at AA/Saga to fund interest payments on £4.6 billion debts
the company left saddled with when private equity owners took billions out
of the company last year
Less than 100 days into his new job
administration, the Tory mayor of London Boris Johnson has appointed a man
the trade unions call “The Prince OF Darkness” to the most senior role in
City Hall.
Private equity’s initial response to Sir
David Walker’s voluntary guidelines on transparency can be split into three:
the dull, the slack and the angry.
In response to your letters of 26 October and
2 November 2007, you will wish to be aware of the Department's
considerations as to whether an AA breakdown vehicle towing a broken-down
car using a VRS ‘dolly’ would be bound by the EU drivers’ hours and
tachograph rules contained in Regulations 561/2006/EC and 3821/1985/EEC.
More
I note that you have had communications with
a member or members of the public in respect of the Automobile Association,
and I make particular reference to one letter you wrote on 30th November
2007, wherein you make misleading remarks and incorrect assertions.More
“Members of the public along with Human Resource staff from
other companies jeer and heckle AA HR Manager Jim Flynn as he arrives to
pick up award in swanky London hotel” More >>>
GMB Sought protection from
prosecution for AA Patrol's after AA places them at Risk.
Updated list of all AA Reps now available. View Here
The chicken’s are
coming home to roost.
The GMB have mounted this campaign when Mr Goodsell, head of AA/Saga refused
to honour the agreement reached with Mr Buffini to recognise the GMB who
have 1800 members in the AA.
Also that the AA profits are now 60pence in every pound while the patrols
are having to do long hours , last job of shift and short of staff.
Call centre staff are on minuscule pay and loads of staff on temporary
contracts with bullying and harassment rife.
CVC/ Permira made an estimated £300 million profit when AA/Saga merged and
Tim Parker was Paid an estimated £40 million for wrecking the AA.
Now all Directors but one has been sacked with massive payouts
while patrols and staff get a misery £1000, worth about £680.
Extra Benefits
Wonder
how the
AA will explain their actions
Individual family members are now
covered for personal injury outside of work and even at work so long as the
date of the accident is not prior to our member’s joining date.
This is detail;
‘As part of your GMB membership your family members are also covered for
accidents or diseases that occur outside of the workplace including injuries
arising out of road traffic accidents, accidents involving members of your
family which occur at their workplace along with diseases which occur as a
result of their work. This family membership is a very important part of
your cover given that it would provide protection not only for you and any
partner but also for your children and those of your partner, including
adult children together with your parents and those of your partner. This
could be your mum tripping up on the pavement, your brother slipping in the
supermarket or even your daughter being injured in the school playground.’
Redundancy: Volunteers for redundancy did not resign but were dismissed
1st
Published in: IRS Employment Review,
4/9/2007
In Optare
Group Ltd v Transport and General Workers Union EAT/0143/07 the Employment
Appeal Tribunal held that a tribunal was right to hold that voluntary
redundancies counted towards the total number of proposed redundancy
dismissals at an establishment, which in this case was sufficient to
trigger the statutory collective consultation requirements.
To read
the rest of this law reports item from XpertHR -
Click here
AA patrol drivers are experiencing long delays in responding
to breakdown calls from motorists because the company has not upgraded their
laptops, a trade union claimed.
GMB RESPONSE
TO REPORTS THAT MERGE OF AA AND SAGA COULD BE PUT ON HOLD
Paul
Maloney, GMB National Secretary for GMB members working for the AA said,
“Today’s report that the AA/SAGA merger is under threat, as the banks fail
to find additional underwriters for the £4.8 billion debt
DEMOCRATIC UNION GETS £31.6 MILLION
The Union of Democratic Mine Workers secured £31.6 in respect of miners’
compensation claims …
“The 2005 report was ordered after allegations published in the Times about
financial relationships between the Union of Democratic Mineworkers and
solicitors’ handling coal health claims, a matter that is now the subject of
the Serious Fraud Office investigation”. Who can trust so-called Democratic Unions?
Read More
Saga and the AA, the private-equity owned businesses
that are merging, incurred no liability for
corporation tax last year, according to the BBC. And
in their two-and-a-half years of ownership by private
equity, they paid almost zero corporation tax.
AA at Glastonbury
It is about time the AA spent money on the correct vehicles for the
job
rather than Patrol's having to ask the RAC for help? See
larger image
Private equity chiefs will face fresh scrutiny by the
Treasury select today amid reports they are making large gains from firms
which pay almost no corporation tax.
The BBC reported today that Saga and the AA - two private equity-owned firms
set for a merger - had paid almost zero corporation tax since being taken
over more than two years ago.
Meanwhile the owners, Charterhouse, Permira and CVC, made gains of
£2.5 billion, it said, around three and a half times the original
investment.
The AA is saying Parker only stands to make £40m -
and not £80m as you claimed initially. I'm sure you made the same
calculation as we did. But here it is for what it is worth:
On my calculation, according to the last published accounts of 31/12/05 and
according to Tim Parker's own statements, he owns 2.8% of the ordinary B
shares (that's 27,870 out of 999,995 issued) of the AA. The latest deal has
valued the AA at £3.3bn which means that Parker stands to make a staggering
£92.4m from these shares alone, not including salaries and bonuses hidden
under a cloak of private equity secrecy. (That doesn't even include his 40%
ownership of the A shares, which are harder to calculate). [NB: If the value
of the AA has been talked-up, and the £3.3bn actually includes it's current
£1.8bn debt, then Parker still stands to gain £42m.]
When they claim that TP will make £40m, perhaps they are meaning that he
will only cash-in £40m of shares now, and keeps the rest of his equity in
the company.
I am writing to let you know about the outcome of our recent
meeting with Permira, one of the leading private equity firms which own the
AA.
As you know GMB has campaigned hard to get national attention for the impact
of private equity firms on great British companies, and we finally brought
Permira to the negotiating table.
I am sure you are aware that I have had a meeting with VOSA
recently, in order to establish whether VRS T4, T5 etc are classed as
specialised vehicles or not. The response from both the Department of
Transport and VOSA is that all these vehicles would be covered under
legislation, and as such we have a strict maximum recovery distance of 100
klms radius from the Patrol’s base. This would be relevant to any vehicle
exceeding 3,500 kgs Maximum Absolute Mass.
Have you got a friend if private equity is on patrol?
The City's new breed of wheeler-dealers, it is claimed, demoralise and
devastate every company they buy - the AA among them. Danny Fortson spent a
day on the road with the 'fourth emergency service' to see if that
reputation can be rescued Published: 15 April 2007
I
am writing to GMB members to confirm that VOSA and the Department of
Transport have confirmed that VRS vehicles will be classified as specialised
breakdown vehicles, providing they operate within a 100 kilometre radius of
their base; that would mean that the base would be you home in the case of
RSS Patrols.
More
General union GMB branded the AA Democratic union a
“scab organisation” yesterday after it was given full independent
status by the Certification Office, the governments regulatory body
for unions.
I
am writing to GMB members to confirm that VOSA and the Department of
Transport have confirmed that VRS vehicles will be classified as specialised
breakdown vehicles, providing they operate within a 100 kilometre radius of
their base; that would mean that the base would be you home in the case of
RSS Patrols.
