Careworker - Employment Rights

patonar

My wife works as a carer - and there are a couple dubious things that they seem to get away with (employment wise not carewise).

1) Mileage Claims

My Wife always has different shifts working at different clients houses, however work only allow her to claim for mileage after the first call of the day. And not on the journey home. For example.

Call 1 - 7 Miles to Client House # No Claim
Call 2 - 3 Miles from Client 1 -> Client 2 # Claim
Call 3 - 6 Miles from Client 2 -> Client 3 # Claim
Call 4 - 4 Miles from Client 3 -> Home # No Claim

Does this sound right to you? My understanding was that she should be able to claim for all mileage being undertaken in the course of business? Right?

2) Working Times
The other bone of contention is this, my wife only gets paid for the hours she is in a client house, not for the time travelling between sites. This can mean that she gets paid for say 4 hours, but is actually working for 6 hours as she is travelling between stops. This seems to go against the guidance in https /www. gov.uk/minimum-wage-different-types-work/overview

3) Cancelled Appointments
My wife just went out to scheduled appointment, when she got there the client told her that she had cancelled the appointment. She phoned her employer who said the client had phoned 3 days ago to cancel, but no-one informed my wife. Her employer said she wasn't eligble for the pay for this shift - but that she could claim the mileage. This doesn't sound fair either...

Thoughts? If it makes any difference she is on a Zero hours contract.

specialboy

1) travelling to and from work is something we all do and the majority don't get paid for it.

patonar

specialboy wrote: »

1) travelling to and from work is something we all do and the majority don't get paid for it.

Yes - but most people make that decision knowing where they are going to be working.

It could be the case that shift 1 and the last shift are 30 miles from home. Hence a 60 Mile expense.

Personally with my work, i am classed as a Mobile worker and bill mileage from the moment i leave the door.

kimbers84

Snap to all three. I've only just started doing care work & I've found exactly the same as your wife.

Only sometimes I don't get any travelling time between calls as well.

patonar

kimbers84 wrote: »

Snap to all three. I've only just started doing care work & I've found exactly the same as your wife.

Only sometimes I don't get any travelling time between calls as well.

Yep thats common too - but when she does e.g. 30 minutes, i would excpect that to be paid according to the Minimum wage guidance.

Takeaway_Addict

I would expect but someone can check that you need to get a definition of the base for work and use that as a guide (this could of course be home if agreed with the employer and thus you would get paid for all mileage but I doubt it)

Have you worked out what your average mileage is for say a month? I

patonar

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

I would expect but someone can check that you need to get a definition of the base for work and use that as a guide (this could of course be home if agreed with the employer and thus you would get paid for all mileage but I doubt it)

Have you worked out what your average mileage is for say a month? I

I thought the differention in Tax law was between temporary and permanent places of work. By definition all of my wifes places of work are temporary and therefore surely eligible for mileage claims?

pmlindyloo

Care workers have to be paid for time travelling between visits. They are not entitled to be paid travelling time to first job or travelling home.

There is a legal precedence set for this that your wife can show her employer.

http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Care-worker-wins-case-travel-time-pay/story-20695663-detail/story.html

Is your wife a member of a union? If so she should speak to them.

patonar

pmlindyloo wrote: »

Care workers have to be paid for time travelling between visits. They are not entitled to be paid travelling time to first job or travelling home.

There is a legal precedence set for this that your wife can show her employer.

http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Care-worker-wins-case-travel-time-pay/story-20695663-detail/story.html

Is your wife a member of a union? If so she should speak to them.

She isn't that i am aware of (probably not) - yeh thats what i thought. Its not a huge amount of time but all adds up at the end of the week. I will let her know.

cte1111

Mileage - tax wise when travelling to and from a temporary place of work, it is allowable to claim for all the miles. However that doesn't mean that the employer has to pay full mileage.