NHS Glasgow - staff parking

catsdad

NHS Glasgow & Clyde offers visitors and patients free 4 hours parking. Employees are no longer allowed to park at their workplace.

For many staff public transport is not an option. I know of many who are parking onsite in PERMIT car parks (NOT inconveniencing Patients and escorts) who are being ticketed and ignoring them as per this site's advice.
New spin is that apparently CPPlus will now pass on names and addresses of defaulters to NHS GGC to cross reference and institute Disciplinary Procedure against staff.

While I already have a bee in my bonnet about the DVLA handing over my details to CPPlus etc, is it legal for them to pass them on again - presumably not ALL defaulters will be employees, some will be MSE followers - NOT GGC STAFF. - any thoughts?

In addition to Doctors being struck off for misconduct, will we see humbler employees dismissed for Parking offences

<<The revised policy enables information to be shared by the car parking contactor with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The Parking Contractor will provide information on the registrations of cars issued with Unauthorised Parking Notices (UPNs).

We are asking all staff to follow the policy and not to park in areas reserved for patients and visitors; this will mean that UPNs will not be issued to our staff.

However where staff do not follow the policy we will now have the information to action. That action will be taken by line managers and may include use of the Disciplinary Policy and Procedure. We will no longer be imposing fines on staff breaching the policy.>>

peter_the_piper

My thought is that whose info is being passed on. Its the Registered keepers, now we all know that the keeper is not always the driver. Bring this up with the union as this is intimidation and unwarranted. I can imagine how much it would cost them at an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.

give_them_FA

So pardon my ignorance, but how does anyone know which cars belong to staff and which to patients/visitors? And don't you have a union in the hospital?

Coupon-mad

give_them_FA wrote: »

So pardon my ignorance, but how does anyone know which cars belong to staff and which to patients/visitors? And don't you have a union in the hospital?

And who was driving, how can CP Plus possibly know? Answer = they don't.

Who is to say that a Doctor doesn't come in the same car as others and that his wife could be the driver as she works or wants to shop nearby, while he keeps the car for driving home later? It is only the person who drives in who CP Plus have any (tenuous rubbish) contract allegation against.

And what if anyone car shares?

What if a husband and wife both work at the hospital, same car? Are they going to get the 'Spanish Inquisition' to be forced to name the driver or assume it was the registered keeper unless told otherwise? Wrong, wrong, wrong! It's only a civil matter so they are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut that shouldn't even need to be cracked.

What if they sell the car to a colleague, disciplinary action is doomed to be aimed at the wrong person which is an AWFUL thought.

I would make a complaint to the Information Commissioner. Google the website and see how to report this possible data breach. Sounds dodgy to me.

Presumably CP Plus must be giving the NHS Hospital a list of ALL apparent 'non-payers' (but that's just registered keepers, not drivers) and then the hospital is cross-referencing the names against employees? Even though they may not have been driving and this is only a civil 'charge' like any other unsolicited invoice and can only be enforced in a Court of law if CP Plus are so bothered.

Shocking. The hospital seem to think they are judge and jury against employees who have no reason to pay this scam and who may not even have been driving. Until this gets knocked on the head by your Union or the ICO, why don't you all say you can't recall who was driving as you often car share? With a fake PCN it is down to CP Plus to identify the person with whom they have an 'alleged contract' when they park - tough if they can't.

Also complain to your Union, although you will probably have to explain the importance of the registered keeper info being irrelevant and a highly spurious reason for disciplinary action. Hospitals really should not give these 3rd party parasites house-room (or car park room).

catsdad

From Senior Trade Union rep prior to posting here...
the parking policy was discussed and comments were fed back from most TUs at healthboard level, while documents may have taken into account comments from staffside, partnership does not mean that staffside always agree with all aspects within and it often ends up a damage limitation process.

The unfortunate reality is that if staff break any GG&C policies they can face a disciplinary investigation and possible action. Since the implementation of the previous car parking policy, technically staff could have been disciplined if their managers became aware that they were ignoring fines.

My recollection is that panels are organised on each site to consider car parking permit applications on the basis of use i.e. as a requirement of the job. In reality there are a lot of staff who don't require cars as part of their job but may choose to use their own transport to get to work e.g. community nurses may require a car to visit patients whereas many of the 500 lab staff at XXXX don't require their cars to do their jobs as they will be based at the XXX and do not have regular duties on other sites.

Although not good, please keep in mind that some sites are even worse in terms of parking spaces and charges e.g. GRI, also worth noting that GG&C has to conform to green policies and pressure from the councils and Government.

In short we are stuck with the policy for the time being and yes, if if staff breack any GG&C policies they can face disciplinary action.

give_them_FA

Not much of a trade union then.

giraffe69

Senior Trade Union rep

I wonder how he gets to work!

peter_the_piper

I still cannot get my head around the principle of staff being disciplined by the hospital for an alleged debt with a third party. Cannot be right unless the car park is managed by the hospital staff.

vax2002

Unions in these places are spoon fed by managment, they get free offices, meals, car parking places.
They do not rock boats.
The best place to start is the Information commissioner as the DVLA data is been misused if it is shared with a third party, it should only be used by those authorised to have access to it.

give_them_FA

Perfectly obvious what has happened. The Hospital authorities have been duped into believing they have employed a reputable agent to do this job for them. Little do they realise....

A perfect scenario so far as a parking parasite is concerned. They can issue fake charges and the simpletons in charge of the hospital will enforce them on their behalf.

Nightmare.

AlexisV

Well really the issue is that anybody receiving a 'fine' or breaching a contract is potentially acting as a trespasser. So it's not a massive surprise it's becoming a disciplinary issue.

I don't necessarily see the problem of CP Plus purchasing keeper details from the DVLA on behalf of the landowner to identify the keepers of trespassing vehicles. The only difficulty would arise if the keeper wasn't the driver but received threatening communication from the Trust or its agents, in which case the Trust could be liable for a claim for damages due to harassment.

CP Plus are obviously far from saints, but if they wanted to take photographs of drivers getting out of their cars to be used to identify staff members, I can't see a problem.

Of course, the Trust could act out of line by disciplining staff if they fail to pay sums of money to a third party that relate to a contractual breach that amounts to a contractual penalty.

But if it's purely 'you trespassed on our land' and they get a strike, it's not an unreasonable situation.