Union boss slams driver penalties

Alex de Vos
Unions have slammed Geelong Taxi Network’s plan to penalise drivers for misbehaviour under a shake-up of services.
Geelong Trades and Labour Council boss Tim Gooden said the reforms would lead to “corruption and bad practices” instead of improved services.
“Right across any industry it has been proven that none of these systems work,” Mr Gooden said.
“They tried it in the car manufacturing industry but employees created cheat sheets and ways to get around things.
“Instead, it will increase dangerous driving such as speeding and encourage bad practices.”
Last week the Independent revealed the region’s taxi drivers now faced penalties for a range of misbehavior including leaving potential passengers stranded, smoking in taxis and swearing.
Geelong Taxi Network’s Peter Valentine said the organisation would slug drivers who abused the regulations with penalty points and force them to pay for retraining.
Mr Valentine said penalties ranged from one to three points depending on the severity of the drivers’ infringements.
Drivers who clocked up five points would have to pay for retraining courses including customer service, health and safety.
But Mr Gooden said the network should expand its training courses and increase remuneration to improve services.
“At the end of the day what you pay for is what you get,” Mr Gooden said.
“What would make a better taxi driver is to pay them more.”
Transport Workers Union’s Bill Baarini welcomed Mr Gooden’s call to increase remuneration and improve training courses for taxi drivers.
“The union is always very concerned about penal systems that networks seek to introduce,” Mr Baarini said.
“Penalising drivers for something which is really trivial naturally trivalises the real issues about better pay and conditions.
“People really need to get to the heart of the problem.”
The Independent has previously reported complaints of inadequate taxi services, including extended waiting times and drivers failing to appear after bookings in coastal areas.