NSW firm outbids BIS for Southwest milk contract

• General News
• 4th April 2013

And it appears they pay their drivers less, PAUL ASLAN Reports

It came as a bit of a shock to learn recently that BIS had lost the Brownes milk contract to a little known NSW firm.

The winner - SRH Milk Haulage - currently provides daily bulk milk cartage from farms in the Hunter Valley, Manning Valley and Tamworth into Dairy Farmers plants at Hexham and Sydney.

The switch to SRH will impact upon about 25 Brunswick Junction based drivers who collect milk in tankers from South West farms.

But if we were a bit shocked by the announcement the BIS drivers weren’t. “There were no secrets. Rumours had been flying thick and fast for months and it was just a matter of when it would eventuate.” said TWU delegate Ron Gercama.

“The company pulled us all in - about a week before it became public - and told us Scott Harvey (SRH) would be doing the farm pick-ups.

“Booth’s are doing the line-haul for Lyon (formerly Nationals Dairy) and we assume it will be the same deal here.” Ron informed us.

As for the future, BIS say they will know more after they have gone through drivers’ employment records.

There is talk that drivers could be offered jobs on the firms mining operations – including Boddington

Fortunately the TWU collective agreement with BIS includes redundancy provisions which are superior to minimum National Employment Conditions.

A few drivers have called Scott Harvey over East but the company is remaining tight-lipped about its plans.

However, according to the rumour mill they are currently paying their eastern states’ based drivers $33 per hour FLAT. No overtime rates, allowances or loadings.

Some of the boys have got their calculators out and they reckon that would only give them about $1,000 after tax.

The BIS drivers have been taking home between $1200 to $1300 weekly after tax has been deducted.