Another Employee Rights Thread
 

Hi all, just thought I'd gather some opinions on this situation.

I work in the construction industry and work away a lot. On Tuesday my employer wants me to drive around 8 hours from maybe 2- or 3am on Tuesday morning and then, when I arrive on site, to work until 6- or 7pm. So if I leave at 3, get there at 11 and work till 6pm, that would be 8 hours travelling and 7 hours of work, or 15 hours of work as some may look at it.

Now I know that travelling time isn't considered the same as work, but this isn't travelling to a permanent place of work in the same sense as a daily commute, and it's also 15 hours where I will be at my employers disposal, so to speak.

What I was wondering was whether this was even legal and if I am within my rights to refuse? A more reasonable scenario to me would be to do a shift driving and then perhaps arrive and be inducted/see what the score is on the site ready for the next day. Something like a normal 9 hour shift.

The other option that was suggested by my employer was to do a 9 hour shift on Monday and drive down after it on Monday night! Both of the requests are ridiculous in my opinion (however, that doesn't mean I won't do one of them, as I've had 3 pay rises in the 11 months I've been with them, which is down to my work and ability to put up with stuff like this, i.e. make things easy for them), but I'd like to see what you all think.

I should add - I do know about the 11 hours of uninterrupted rest, but is travelling time in this case taken into account as working time and therefore taking me over the 13 hours per day that my employer can have me working?

Do they pay you travelling expenses?

I get sent places to work (it's in the terms and conditions of my contract) but they pay me travel costs if I work a full day. The alternative is to "travel in works time" but I won't get paid for the travel.........if that makes sense.

Shaun

Travelling is taken into consideration where I work. I can't remember the exact figure in terms of hours but once over it company rules state you must check into a hotel and make the return journey the following day.
Does your company have a HR department you can consult?

Nik.

My old place used to have a rule if it weren't a one off job and more than two hours drive to get there they would put us In a hotel.so we could be on site early as possible

It's a company van so travelling costs me nothing. Travelling time is paid at the basic hourly rate and I will probably get all 8 hours paid. So I will be paid for all 15 hours in the scenario I described in my first post.

We do have a "HR" manager, but he is too close to every other manager to bother asking, and would probably not tell me the truth anyway, either because he doesn't know or because it's not in the company's interests to, or both. :lol1:

You're in work on work business,your vehicle be it a company vehicle or your own is now a workplace.
if you even start from home and are traveling to a different location to your normal place of work its classed as work related driving.

15 hours breaks the European Working Time Directive..........only allowed to work 11 hours out of 24 IIRC.

Shaun

I have no idea what's legal etc but personally I think for a company to expect someone to drive for that amount of time (and leaving at the time you have to) then do a full days work is some what taking the p!ss.

There must be some health and safety thing covering this type of thing these days???

Depends what job you're in,some of us are not allowed to opt out of the working time directive...meh :(