Training away from the office

Latheofheaven

Hello!

I work for the NHS and we have to go on training away from the office. Most of us work 7.5 hours per day (flexi time). A couple have different shift patterns (8 hour days on set hours). We have been told we will only get paid for the hours we are in training on those days (training can often be 6 hours rather than 7.5) and we will have to make our hours up on other days.

Is that right? Because we haven't asked to be trained at another place (far enough that we can't get back to our desk to make up the time that day). If we are contracted​ to work certain hours but they force us to work fewer hours, should we get our normal hours for that day? It seems unreasonable to expect us to make up the time another day when the training hours are out of our control.

Thank you!

getmore4less

You should also get paid for upto the time to travel to the training site from your normal place of work.

Don't forget your mileage claim.

You also have to be insured for business if using your own car.

if not insured you need to get the employer to arrange transport.

sangie595

Latheofheaven wrote: »

Hello!

I work for the NHS and we have to go on training away from the office. Most of us work 7.5 hours per day (flexi time). A couple have different shift patterns (8 hour days on set hours). We have been told we will only get paid for the hours we are in training on those days (training can often be 6 hours rather than 7.5) and we will have to make our hours up on other days.

Is that right? Because we haven't asked to be trained at another place (far enough that we can't get back to our desk to make up the time that day). If we are contracted​ to work certain hours but they force us to work fewer hours, should we get our normal hours for that day? It seems unreasonable to expect us to make up the time another day when the training hours are out of our control.

Thank you!

Unless there is something specific in NHS / your contract to the contrary, then this does not seem unreasonable. And certainly not against the law.

ThemeOne

So what would happen if the training only lasted 4 hours?

Training time is often stated as the maximum in the slot available, but it doesn't mean it will necessarily take that long - it can easily be over much more quickly with smaller groups or more able groups where there aren't many questions.

ohreally

ThemeOne wrote: »

So what would happen if the training only lasted 4 hours?

Return to work.

Latheofheaven

Thank you.

To clarify, training is an hour away and training is supposed to finish at around 4.30 but usually finishes earlier. So the time at the end of the day isn't time we could be in the office and isn't like time off because we couldn't plan to do anything with that time as we expected to be in training.

ThemeOne

ohreally wrote: »

Return to work.

Yes, assuming the training location is reasonable travelling distance from the workplace.

The reason I mention it is that managers often put in place these rules based on the misapprehension that training will take an exact amount of time.

ohreally

Ask your employer to arrange transport then.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Because you work flexitime, it's not that they "expect you to make these hours up on another day". It's just that they are only booking the number of hours you actually work. It's just like another day on which you choose only to work 6 hours. I don't see why the fact that it finishes at 4:30 matter; you could go back to the office and work until 10pm (depending on your flexitime rules). This is one of the downsides of flexitime, I am afraid, to set against its very many benefits.

Whether travel time is bookable against your working hours in this instance could be something you can bring up; but to me this is the only point open to discussion here.

ThemeOne

How is the training time recorded? My point being that how would they know it had only taken, for example, 6 hours?

Latheofheaven

I think it is the matter of flexi time being about choice - I don't believe it is there for the employer to tell you which hours to work. It is to allow flexibility for the employee. Otherwise they could tell us to come in 10 til 6 whenever they liked despite the fact many of us would struggle with those hours.