{"id":10906,"date":"2016-12-21T15:23:28","date_gmt":"2016-12-21T15:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=10906"},"modified":"2016-12-21T15:23:28","modified_gmt":"2016-12-21T15:23:28","slug":"loos-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=10906","title":{"rendered":"Loos are human rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The government is falling short when half a million lorry drivers are \u00e2\u20ac\u0098caught short\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 looking for toilet facilities, Unite said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The union said that it is calling for a statutory, legally-binding code of practice so that lorry drivers have adequate parking and eating facilities, and decent showers and toilets when they are travelling across the UK for up to five-days-at-a-time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite was commenting on transport minister John Hayes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 written statement to MPs on road freight, which, the union said, was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098too much talk and not enough action\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe road haulage industry contributes billions of pounds a year to the British economy, but the drivers who contribute to this wealth often have to park up in isolated lay-bys and unappealing industrial estates for the night,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Adrian Jones, Unite national officer for road transport.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bToo many haulage bosses are quite happy for their drivers to leave the depot and as long as they deliver the load and return on time, they are not overly concerned about how they sleep, eat and shower. We know that this is a particular issue for Kent county council,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 commented Jones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe ideal would be \u00e2\u20ac\u0098specialist lorry parks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for lorry drivers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c safe, secure and clean with the modern facilities you would expect from the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sixth largest economy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mixed <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAt present, the picture is very mixed. Some privately-owned lorry parks are very good and others leave a lot to be desired.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is pleased that the government has at long last recognised the important role road transport workers play in the economy. However, the minister\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement falls short of what we believe is needed to make a real change to thousands of workers whose workplaces are the roads across the country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite believes that urgent action needs to be taken to oblige developers to include parking facilities for drivers in their plans as well as a national minimum standard for parking facilities – underpinned by a statutory code of practice – that both public and privately-owned facilities should adhere to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The minister said a contract has been awarded for \u00e2\u20ac\u0098an extensive national survey of lorry parking\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to be completed by the spring.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Jones added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have heard a lot of warm words on this issue from government, but it needs to move faster to put statutory flesh on the bones of good intentions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and Unite will be campaigning strongly on this issue in 2017.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government is falling short when half a million lorry drivers are \u00e2\u20ac\u0098caught short\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 looking for toilet facilities, Unite said.   The union said that it is calling for a statutory, legally-binding code of practice so that lorry drivers have adequate parking and eating facilities, and decent showers and toilets when they are travelling across […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[522],"wps_subtitle":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Caught short\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lorry drivers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Christmas plea to govt","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10906"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10907,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10906\/revisions\/10907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}