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Working time / overtime paid or unpaid.
savings_my_hobby
Posts: 363 Forumite
Hi guys.
A good friend of mine is having some trouble at work and we are not sure how to proceed.
His/her job tittle is "Service Driver" and their main duties include driving to various customers premises' and servicing the companies products which are being hired (rented) by the customer.
He/she is contacted to work 40 hours, getting paid from the time they leave their home (work van his kept overnight) until the time they leave the yard at the end of the day, it then takes them an hour to get home, which is unpaid but this is not the issue.
The route is planned for them and they should follow the plan to the letter, once work is completed they return to the yard to load for the next day. They have 30mins to load and a 15 minute route briefing to discuss any problems throughout the day and to pick up on any foreseen problems for the next day.
The trouble is this does not run smoothly and is poorly planned, there are only six loading bays at the yard and as many as 15 drivers are arriving in the yard at roughly the same time causing many drivers to go over their 8 hours. The company is refusing to pay overtime to these drivers some of which are more than an hour late leaving, even though we think they are still "working" because it is not their fault.
The company puts great emphasis on Route completion and rightly so, but sometimes due to traffic or inevitable hold ups though out the day they arrive to the yard to load with less than 45 minutes to load, this is without the problems mentioned above.
I always thought that the company MUST pay for the hours worked and if the company cannot get efficient working systems and procedures in place and the employee goes over their hours as a result then they MUST be paid.
It is not as though you can do:
8.5 hours mon
9 hours tue
8 hours wed
10 hours thur
and then make up for it by only doing 4.5 hours on fri
Each day is planned for 8 hours work.
Another note to add is they have a mobile mechanic comes to the yard to service the vehicles, the mobile mechanic takes up two bays to service the vehicles thus reducing the already stretched capacity by 33% (six bays to four) making even more service drivers go over their normal working hours.
This is never planned for and time is never allocated to provide provision for such incidences.
Should my friend be getting paid for their overtime?
A good friend of mine is having some trouble at work and we are not sure how to proceed.
His/her job tittle is "Service Driver" and their main duties include driving to various customers premises' and servicing the companies products which are being hired (rented) by the customer.
He/she is contacted to work 40 hours, getting paid from the time they leave their home (work van his kept overnight) until the time they leave the yard at the end of the day, it then takes them an hour to get home, which is unpaid but this is not the issue.
The route is planned for them and they should follow the plan to the letter, once work is completed they return to the yard to load for the next day. They have 30mins to load and a 15 minute route briefing to discuss any problems throughout the day and to pick up on any foreseen problems for the next day.
The trouble is this does not run smoothly and is poorly planned, there are only six loading bays at the yard and as many as 15 drivers are arriving in the yard at roughly the same time causing many drivers to go over their 8 hours. The company is refusing to pay overtime to these drivers some of which are more than an hour late leaving, even though we think they are still "working" because it is not their fault.
The company puts great emphasis on Route completion and rightly so, but sometimes due to traffic or inevitable hold ups though out the day they arrive to the yard to load with less than 45 minutes to load, this is without the problems mentioned above.
I always thought that the company MUST pay for the hours worked and if the company cannot get efficient working systems and procedures in place and the employee goes over their hours as a result then they MUST be paid.
It is not as though you can do:
8.5 hours mon
9 hours tue
8 hours wed
10 hours thur
and then make up for it by only doing 4.5 hours on fri
Each day is planned for 8 hours work.
Another note to add is they have a mobile mechanic comes to the yard to service the vehicles, the mobile mechanic takes up two bays to service the vehicles thus reducing the already stretched capacity by 33% (six bays to four) making even more service drivers go over their normal working hours.
This is never planned for and time is never allocated to provide provision for such incidences.
Should my friend be getting paid for their overtime?
Earn, Save and Achieve
0
Comments
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IMO, yes he should. I would need paying if it was me.0
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Should they be paid? Probably, MUST they be paid? Depends on wether or not the extra hour takes them below nmw
Are the drivers on salary or hourly paid?Be Alert..........Britain needs lerts.0 -
They should become unionised, these would be good issues to organise around.Don’t be a can’t, be a can.0
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I guess the employers could argue that they aren't 'working' when waiting around for a loading bay, but on a break.
If half the drivers went from home to the depot, loaded in the morning, and then went straight home in the evening it would halve the competition for the spaces. Even if only six drivers did this to ensure they wouldn't need to wait for a bay and be late at the customers it might help.But a banker, engaged at enormous expense,Had the whole of their cash in his care.
Lewis Carroll0 -
Could the drivers communicate to stagger arrivals back at the depot.
hanging around may be an unpaid issue but if they hit traffic and are late back do they get paid?0 -
theoretica wrote: »I guess the employers could argue that they aren't 'working' when waiting around for a loading bay, but on a break.
If half the drivers went from home to the depot, loaded in the morning, and then went straight home in the evening it would halve the competition for the spaces. Even if only six drivers did this to ensure they wouldn't need to wait for a bay and be late at the customers it might help.
there is one problem with this suggestion, the Drivers get paid from their home until they leave the yard yard fully loaded within 8 hours, if they load in the morning they do not get paid until they leave the yard fully loaded thus doing it in their own time which obviously they are reluctant to do.
in effect they would lose on travel and loading time.
Good suggestion though, I asked the same thing.Earn, Save and Achieve0 -
paddedjohn wrote: »Should they be paid? Probably, MUST they be paid? Depends on wether or not the extra hour takes them below nmw
Are the drivers on salary or hourly paid?
It's not clear to me weather they are on salary or not. the contact says x per year, the wage slip says x per hour, when the company talks about wages it talks about annual salary and they get paid weekly.Earn, Save and Achieve0 -
getmore4less wrote: »Could the drivers communicate to stagger arrivals back at the depot.
hanging around may be an unpaid issue but if they hit traffic and are late back do they get paid?
No, they must follow the route system and must not deviate, they have to start at whatever time and arrive at the yard for the time stated. (usually several at the same time)
Like I said this has been poorly planned, no one has even thought about the bottleneck at the yardEarn, Save and Achieve0 -
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What do they do while they're waiting - are they free to go and get something to eat or drink?0
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