Admin fees charged by employer

AskAsk

Tealblue said:

bradders1983 said:

You need to talk to your union. 

What about - how to park legally?

  

bradders1983

Now now, the way I read it was that their boss was telling them to park in bus lanes.

If this is what is happening, and the employer is passing the fines or part of the fines on, then it clearly isnt on.

TELLIT01

If workers have been told that they must park legally at all times, and the consequences of failing to do so, the company is not doing anything wrong.  If it's impossible to park legally and do the job that is something the company needs to address.

Manxman_in_exile

ChamoneMF - what do you mean?  Do you mean (1) you are actually doing "essential" official* telecoms work in the bus lane itself (eg you are working on cables under the tarmac of the bus lane or something) or (2) you are driving or stopping in the bus lane unneccessarily to do work not associated with the bus lane?

If it's the former and the work is "official", then your employer ought to be liaising with the council to make sure that they are aware of this "essential" work and give you a dispensation, so that there's no fine and no admin fee.  If it's the latter, you should not be using the bus lane.  Simple?

*If you are doing official work in the bus lane, I don't see any problem using it or parking in it where the work is being done

Undervalued

If it is essential (i.e not just convenient!!) to have a vehicle parked somewhere where it would otherwise be illegal to park, then the local authority will have a procedure to grant permission. Otherwise you stop to unload (unless that is also illegal) then go and park somewhere legal. If you break the law or incur an enforceable civil penalty then your employer can pass that on, plus a reasonable admin charge. It may be that the vehicles are leased and the leasing company is adding an admin charge when they pass the penalties on to your employer?

Sadly there are lots of situations where tradesmen seem to feel that the world will end if they are more than 10 yards away from their van! Often when you look at them you get the impression the exercise of walking to a legal parking place would do them good! 

bradders1983

It still isnt clear if their boss is ordering them to park in bus lanes or not, to be honest.

If they are the OP needs to speak to their union as he shouldnt be penalised for following his bosses orders.
If they aren't, the OP simply needs to stop being a numpty and stop parking in them until his vehicle is put on an approved list of vehicles the local council will keep.

Undervalued

bradders1983 said:

It still isnt clear if their boss is ordering them to park in bus lanes or not, to be honest.

If they are the OP needs to speak to their union as he shouldnt be penalised for following his bosses orders.
If they aren't, the OP simply needs to stop being a numpty and stop parking in them until his vehicle is put on an approved list of vehicles the local council will keep.

Strictly speaking he should still be penalised for following the bosses orders if the boss is asking him to do something illegal! The correct course of action is to refuse and were he to be dismissed it would automatically be unfair dismissal.

"I was only following orders" is known as the "Nuremberg defence" which didn't work too well!

Barny1979

It may not be parking in the bus lane but travelling through it to shortcut to a site to save on mileage, that the business may be telling them to do.

TELLIT01

Barny1979 said:

It may not be parking in the bus lane but travelling through it to shortcut to a site to save on mileage, that the business may be telling them to do.

Whatever he is being told to do by his employer, he is driving the vehicle and should stick to the rules of the road.

Barny1979

TELLIT01 said:

Barny1979 said:

It may not be parking in the bus lane but travelling through it to shortcut to a site to save on mileage, that the business may be telling them to do.

Whatever he is being told to do by his employer, he is driving the vehicle and should stick to the rules of the road.

I agree, just pointing out it may be not be associated with parking, as stated, if it's a legitimate function, they could apply for a waiver that the Council may consider or they may be a statutory function that means they have to enter the bus lane to access their equipment, more than likely it is being done for convenience.