Payment for travelling back from site to yard

Ultonian

I work for a gardening company. Our usual shift is 0800-1630. However, our yard is about an hours drive from the area that we nearly always work in, which means that we don't get back to the yard until 1730 but he stops paying us at 1630.

I drive the van with usually one or two colleagues in it, is the employer obliged to pay me/ all of us/ none of us for this hour?

Thanks.

Owain_Moneysaver

If the yard is your designated workplace then you are usually paid until you return to the yard.

Is the non-payment taking you below the National Minimum Wage once you average out the full hours you work?

Ultonian

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

If the yard is your designated workplace then you are usually paid until you return to the yard.

Is the non-payment taking you below the National Minimum Wage once you average out the full hours you work?

Hi, when I say 'yard' I mean the boss's private house where he keeps the van and other equipment. We are only ever there for maybe ten minutes in the morning and less in the evening.

I get paid £8ph for an 8 hour shift and if I add the extra hour and divide by 9 it works out below minimum wage, £7.11ph.

skintandfat

You should be paid from when you start (arrival at bosses house) to when you return to his house- less any breaks such as lunch.


http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1373


You are also subject to the working time directive.

Owain_Moneysaver

Sounds like you're being paid below Minimum Wage and the employer is breaking the law.

https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage/worker-disputes-over-minimum-wage

ReadingTim

I'd be arriving back at the yard at 4.30 if I were you...

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Could you go straight to the place of work if you wanted to? Is it your choice to go to his house and travel in the van instead?
Would you be ok with it if he said "Right, go straight to the workplace, I will bring the equipment" and you had to pay for your own travelling costs for the extra hour's drive? In which case, as far as I can see, you would do the same amount of time on the road, unpaid, but also have petrol costs?
If you drive the van (presumably with equipment) and he wants you to do this, then he needs to pay you for it. The others who are just getting a lift, essentially, I wouldn't say it's as clear for.

Ultonian

Thanks for all your replies.

I'd be arriving back at the yard at 4.30 if I were you...
That is how it was in previous firms that I have worked for.

Could you go straight to the place of work if you wanted to?
Not really, colleagues travel with me and sometimes we need equipment that is kept at his house.

The others who are just getting a lift,
For the first month I was getting picked up and dropped off at my house which is on the way and that meant I had only had half an hour in the van in the evening and no commute so I didn't really mind even though I thought that I should be getting paid, but since the other guy left it means that I have to pick up the van and colleagues and I have a half hour commute to and from the boss's house on top of the hour journey back to his house that I am not getting paid for.

To be honest, I don't think that I will be there much longer and I will highlight this unpaid journey to the boss as a major reason once I have found a new post.

Owain_Moneysaver

Never mind highlighting it as a reason, put in your claim for back payment!