Being forced to stay away with work

dave-uk

Hi guys. need a little advice on what to do with my current employment issue.

I am a traveling engineer currently working for a company, My contract states that my hours of employment are monday - friday 9am-5pm with a flexi working clause of 8am-8pm, We travel the Uk doing repairs to equipment that we have deployed and travel time is included in my day ( minus 15 mins each day to cover the time it would take me to get to the base)

My employer has recently started booking install jobs that take more time and sometimes require 3 days. This is were my issue has started.

My employer feels it is ok to book me a Hotel and for me to stay away from home with no extra bonus or benefits and starts as far as they are concerned "its just part of the job"
This has started to effect my personal life and other things, such as night school at my local collage.

if our hours run over they are returned in lieu, I have stated I am happy to travel each day early but have been told they I can't claim travel to for the 2 hour each way trip.

Am I correct in thinking that this is a breach of contract and I can not be forced to stay over night if I choose not to, as i mentioned I'm not refusing the job just the staying away part.

Any advice or links to legislation would be great, I have requested a formal meeting with my manager and would like to be prepared with documentation that backs my case, or be ready to fold if I find i am in the wrong.

Thanks

sangie595

You can't be forced to stay in a hotel or anywhere else. You can come home.

They can't be forced to pay you the extra travel!

So if you are happy to pay for your own travel, you can do as you wish. If you are not, then it isn't breach of contract (a) because I doubt your contract says anything at all about overnight stays and (b) because changing a contract is really easy to do. The chances are that if they impose this you will not be seen as acting reasonably by a tribunal. A business needs to be able to conduct its business as times and circumstances change, and if it came to a straight up choice between not being willing to sometimes stay away and being out of work, unemployment isn't likely to be viewed as a reasonable choice on your part.

Guest101

My argument for this might be: a hotel costs the company £50 (or whatever) per night. So it's saving money to pay you £40 to travel up and down.


However they've offered to put you up, if you don't like it, then you are free to travel at your own expense.

dave-uk

Thank for the info guys.

My gripe is my personal time being taken away, sure I'm not working but still in a hotel room on my own sucks when i should be at home dealing with my personal life.


Im also concerned about missing out on my collage course, that i paid a lot of money for, and is conducted in my own time, in order to better myself.

tomtontom

dave-uk wrote: »

Thank for the info guys.

My gripe is my personal time being taken away, sure I'm not working but still in a hotel room on my own sucks when i should be at home dealing with my personal life.


Im also concerned about missing out on my collage course, that i paid a lot of money for, and is conducted in my own time, in order to better myself.

* college

Hoe often are you expected to stay away? Is your course related to your job?

dave-uk

tomtontom wrote: »

* college

Hoe often are you expected to stay away? Is your course related to your job?

Every week for the next few months and then when ever the company wants. This is another gripe is the short notice. This week I was told Today about a install and over night stay tuesday night, wednesday night, thursday night.

They said its due to "short notice" by the customer

ACG

tomtontom wrote: »

* college

Hoe often are you expected to stay away? Is your course related to your job?

*How
Glass houses and all that

DKLS

dave-uk wrote: »

Thank for the info guys.

My gripe is my personal time being taken away, sure I'm not working but still in a hotel room on my own sucks when i should be at home dealing with my personal life.


Im also concerned about missing out on my collage course, that i paid a lot of money for, and is conducted in my own time, in order to better myself.

For me its swings and roundabouts, but overall I love a bit of work travel especially when I go to places I wouldn't normally consider for a holiday.

Last week was Birmingham for 3 days which was pretty crappy but this week is Florida for a week. The hotel is right on the beach

marcarm

Im also concerned about missing out on my collage course,

tomtontom wrote: »

* college

Maybe they are learning how to make art from torn up pieces of tissue paper? :rotfl:

Ozzuk

I'd have thought any job that identifies you as a 'travelling engineer' would have high risk of overnight stay. You've had it easy up til now (it sounds like) being paid to travel but as the company gets more work they need you onsite more so have offered to ease the travel burden with overnight stay.

It does seems entirely reasonable to me - but I'm not the one that has to do it. As others have said, I can't see anything wrong/illegal in what they are doing so your only choices are to get on with it or find a new job with less travel.

getmore4less

The usual way to try to reduce overnights is extended hours.

Arrange with the client to start early and finish late to compress a 3/4 day job by a day and get the time back