‘Deal nears’ in tanker driver dispute

The Unite union, which represents tanker drivers, will reconvene on Monday to discuss a proposed deal tabled on Friday following six days of talks between officials and representatives from six distribution firms.

The threat of a strike over safety, pay and working conditions resulted in panic buying at petrol stations earlier this month alongside government warnings to the public to stockpile fuel.

The plan has been discussed under the umbrella of the conciliation service Acas, which has chaired meetings between the sides.

Peter Harwood, Acas chief conciliator said: “Over the past fortnight the six contractors have met with the Unite trade union through the Acas conciliation service. Acas has been shuttling between the parties and the process has been a challenging one but we are pleased to announce that a set of proposals have been reached.

“As you would expect, the details of the proposals are confidential until the parties report back to their respective organisations. After that the details may be disclosed by the parties themselves.”

Unite had earlier been given an extension to a deadline for declaring strikes in the fuel tanker drivers dispute so that peace talks could continue.

Under employment law, the union should have made a decision by late afternoon on whether to call its 2,000 members in the industry out on strike after they voted last month for industrial action.

Prime Minister David Cameron made a plea for drivers to stop their strike plans last month.

Mr Harwood added: “The extension to the ballot period was agreed to enable those consultations to take place.

“Acas is pleased at this development and hope that the matter will soon be settled.”

An Energy and Climate Change Department spokesman said: “The government welcome the news that Unite plan to put a deal to their members.

“We hope that this will lead to the threat of strike action being lifted.

“The government continues to believe that any strike action is wrong and unnecessary.

“We will continue to work on contingency plans to increase the country’s resilience in the event of a strike.”