When should my paid shift actually start and finish?

RS2OOO

Hi,

I'm trying to determine where I stand in this situation before I go ahead and rebel!

Whether relevant or not, my employment contract states the address of my place of work (which has actually long since changed), then goes on to say that I may be required to work from other locations as required by the business.

My role in construction has evolved over the years and now requires office based planning work at a single office location (my normal commute), plus site based work which could be anywhere in the south east, day or night, and for the site work I require a company pool vehicle (which requires collection prior to shift-start and return post-shift, and cannot be taken home).

For the site work I'm expected to be on site for the start of my shift and to remain there till the end of my shift.

This usually involves a 2 hour commute to collect the company vehicle from its storage location, then a journey to wherever the job site is, which could be anything from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours from the vehicle collection point (unpaid). This is repeated to return the vehicle at end of shift.

Do I have solid legal grounds to refuse to collect the company vehicle until my (paid) shift start time, and to return it in time for my (paid) shift finish time?

For the last number of years I've been collecting the vehicle an hour or 2 before my shift starts and returning it after my shift finishes, but this often leads to 15+ hour days accounting for travelling time.

Some colleagues are in a similar boat, others use their own vehicles and go straight from home to site and avoid use of company vehicles. I don't have my own vehicle to do this.

There's a feeling that if we kick-off over this the company will simply stop use of company vehicles altogether and make it our responsibility to find our own way to site for the start of the shift and remain there till the end. I assume there's nothing stopping them from doing this?

Where do I stand?

DullGreyGuy

Are you salaried or paid by the hour?
What does your contract say about both number of hours worked and overtime? Need to be very precise not paraphrase/approximate

RS2OOO

DullGreyGuy said:

Are you salaried or paid by the hour?
What does your contract say about both number of hours worked and overtime? Need to be very precise not paraphrase/approximate

Here goes the most relevant parts:

Location:
Your normal work location will be xxxxx address  xxxxx but you may be required to work anywhere within the area served by (company name) from time to time.

Employment (Salaried):
Your contractual hours of work are 35 hours per week. You are expected to be flexible in your working hours. Your salary range reflects the requirement to work regular unsociable hours for which no additional payment will be made. In addition to your contractual hours you may be called upon to work additional hours to meet business needs, in accordance with local arrangements.

There is no mention of overtime in the contract. In reality we get offered overtime at normal hourly rate if they are desperate for extra cover, and also accrue lieu hours since the roster has us working more than the contracted 35 hour week.

EDIT: Just to note the contract hasn't been updated since 2003. Since then we've moved offices 4 times and no longer even own the address shown in the contract. Numerous sections of the contract are no longer applicable due to the way the role has evolved, but also there's sections in there that are favourable and might be lost were the contract changed.

born_again

Seems odd that they do not allow you to take vehicle home, but require to drop off & pick up from a location.

DullGreyGuy

born_again said:

Seems odd that they do not allow you to take vehicle home, but require to drop off & pick up from a location.

Avoids the risk of it being classified as a company car and therefore BIK being due

Marcon

RS2OOO said:

There's a feeling that if we kick-off over this the company will simply stop use of company vehicles altogether and make it our responsibility to find our own way to site for the start of the shift and remain there till the end. I assume there's nothing stopping them from doing this?

In the absence of anything in your contract to the contrary, there's nothing at all stopping them.

RS2OOO

With regards to my original query is the concensus that I have little choice but to collect the vehicle in good enough time to reach site ready for the start of my shift, and return the vehicle after my shift has finished?

As opposed to collecting the vehicle at the start of my shift and then traveling to site in company time, and then returning the vehicle also in company time for the end of my shift?

BrassicWoman

As long as that doesn't take you under minimum wage, then yes.

RS2OOO

BrassicWoman said:

As long as that doesn't take you under minimum wage, then yes.

Ok, thanks.

My hopes were for a different answer, but it is what it is.

Sometimes where long distances / heavy traffic is involved you may only get 7 hours at home between shifts, makes it pretty tough at times. Would have been nice to find a way around that.

DigSunPap

From working in pubs for years I would always clock in and clock out exactly as they time my shift would be on the rota. Coming in early and staying late for big multi-million pound corporations I don't think is worth it as they do not value your time. It was different when I worked for a family business as you feel more valued and I would be happy to stay late and start early as we had a good relationship.

DullGreyGuy

DigSunPap said:

From working in pubs for years I would always clock in and clock out exactly as they time my shift would be on the rota. Coming in early and staying late for big multi-million pound corporations I don't think is worth it as they do not value your time. It was different when I worked for a family business as you feel more valued and I would be happy to stay late and start early as we had a good relationship.

Really depends where you are in your career and what you do for a living. 

My work is naturally peak/trough in nature... there are times when there is little to do (probably 20hrs a week) and there are times (not often thankfully) when  100hrs a week are required. Anyone who just did their 40 hours no matter the position in the cycle aren't going to get very far. There is no need for the presenteeism of being clocked in for 40 hours when there is nothing to do and you will fail your annual review when you tell your manager you lost the court case as prepping the docs to submit in time would have taken 45 hours effort but you refuse to work more than 40 so submitted them a day late. 

Whilst the "corporate" may not appreciate your extra hours appropriately, people can and, in my experience, do. Have known people being promoted and bringing their best team up the ladder with them... wasn't just the people that did the longest hours, its a matter of quality and quantity not quantity alone, but certainly wasn't the ones refusing to do things beyond 5pm. 

If you are in your twilight years and just coasting to retirement, don't want any promotions etc then absolutely you can stick to the letter of the contract and possibly hope that a redundancy opportunity comes along.