Tribunal orders Keyfast Bulk Haulage to pay two subbies $72,427

• Owner Drivers
• 27th January 2012

Owner-drivers regularly come to the TWU after they have become ensnared in a ‘vicious circle' from which they have been unable to escape without losing heaps of money. Two such people are our members Dennis Milevski and Glen Squires. Together they are owed approximately $72,471 by Craig Boys of Keyfast Bulk Haulage Pty Ltd.

The TWU took Keyfast to the Road Freight Tribunal in an attempt to get Boys to hand over the money they owed the two subbies. In each case the Tribunal issued orders against Craig Boys to pay up. $40,574 to Dennis Milevski and $31,897 to Glen Squires.

If Craig Boys had paid up as ordered by the Commissioner SJ Kenner we would be reporting a happy ending.

Sadly we are still chasing the money and Boys is proving to be a slippery customer to get hold of. He won't return phone calls and is never there when we call around to his home. We have taken out enforcement proceedings against him in the Perth Magistrates Court and have been attempting to serve legal papers on him.

But of course, he is never there and his wife has refused to accept them.

Not to be beaten, we have gone back to court and obtained an order for ‘substitute service' which will enable us to serve papers on Craig Boys' spouse.
We are doing our very best to get Boys to cough up what he owes these men for the blood, sweat and hard yakka they have put in for him.

Of course, in the meantime Dennis and Glenn must struggle on without the money they so desperately need to continue operating.

Unfortunately, Glenn has had to get out of contracting and take a wages job.

Many of our owner-driver members will empathise with these men, having lived through similar dilemmas. In fact some never recover from such a big hit to their finances!

But we have by no means given up - the law is the law and Craig Boys has not heard the last of the TWU. We will update you on progress in the next
Wheel.

It sounds awful saying this in hindsight, but cases like this serve to warn owner-drivers not to get themselves in too deep with prime contractors. Don't let the UNPAID INVOICES build up for too long. If you are not being paid, call the TWU before the bills mount up too high.