THE RATTLE of milk bottles on electric-powered milk floats was once a common early morning sound on suburban streets and something of a cliché in British films of the mid-20th century. Pádraig Yeates recorded another step in the passing of the milkman in this day’s newspaper in 1985.
Milkman faces future as agent
“A milkman is only as good as his last delivery round. Either you’ve got it or you haven’t,” admitted one trade unionist dealing with the sudden decision by the Premier-Hughes Dairy group to make all its delivery men redundant and rehire them as self-employed “agents”. But he also said it was a development that would never have been necessary if it hadn’t been for the rise of non-unionised dairies . . . carving out a growing share of the Dublin doorstep and shop delivery milk market.
Dublin is one of the few capitals (or indeed cities) in the world where milk and bread are still delivered door-to-door – which accounts, in part, for our high levels of milk consumption. Four years ago the bakers’ union lost a long rearguard battle in the big bakeries to defend work practices because of the threat from small, but growing, non-unionised firms which were able to put a cheaper, fresher loaf on the market . . .
Premier-Hughes has seen the writing on the wall sooner. It still controls 80 per cent of Dublin’s door-to-door market and 50 per cent of the shop sales. Nevertheless, the proposals make grim reading for the workforce and the unions are holding their fire on a response until next week.
Altogether about 1,000 of the 1,600 workforce are to be laid off. About 400 of the redundancies the management wants are in the delivery area, with 300 of the men being offered the old delivery runs back again on an agency basis. The remainder of the staff to go will be mainly in the administrative, clerical and maintenance areas, with some production workers as well.
The reason for the rationalisation proposals is easy to find. Milk prices to farmers and consumers are strictly controlled by the Government. It’s the companies which can cut their overheads and maximise on the productivity of employees or, in this case, agents which will do best.
Management claims the change in status for deliverymen is minimal and may even be welcomed by some of the staff. They will be given their milk floats as part of the redundancy deal and credit on their milk runs. There will also be training in accountancy and other skills needed to be self-employed. As Schedule D taxpayers they should be in a position to pay considerably less tax on earnings than with their present PAYE status.
This glowing picture of the future has to be contrasted with the fact that many of the roundsmen, particularly at the main Kimmage depot of the firm, have worked all their lives as employees on routes that have changed little over the years. These routes also tend to be in areas where flat-dwellers are replacing families as the dominant group and there is a consequent fall in the demand for door-to-door deliveries.
“An old 600-house estate might only take 30 crates of milk while a new 300-house estate, full of young families, will take 60 crates,” explained a young milkman at the Killester depot yesterday. “Some of the older lads will lose out but it won’t make much difference for the younger ones, apart from doing your own accounts and tax.”
A management spokesman later said the company’s proposals took into account the need to draw up new routes, but accepted there would be casualties among those roundsmen unable to readjust to running their own businesses. This means, effectively, the older employees.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/archive/1984/0525/Pg007.html#Ar00702