mobile phone for work

ningboo

Does anyone know if an employer 'can' require you to use your personal mobile phone for work? My mum works as a home care nurse and her employer has told her and all her colleagues they must use their own mobiles (rather than have one provided). They do say they are just to 'buzz' the number for the office and they will call back, but my mum and her colleagues are reluctant to even give their mobile numbers out to the office, or clients. I don't think you can be required to do this, but I can not find anything that says so (in official terms), that she could give to her company. Any ideas?
thanks xx

Sid_Harper

Of course they can't - unless it's part of an employment contract (which I suspect would be very looked down upon) - what if you don't have a mobile?

Mrs Harper occasionally has to visit clients from work; her bosses 'expect' her to take her own car. I told her that the insurance policy only covers social, domestic, pleasure and commuting to/from a SINGLE place of work. So she takes cabs/trains and charges this back to the company. They can't argue with her on that.

This doesn't really have anything to do with phones as such more an employment law question.

Of course, it can be beneficial to have a personal phone used for work purposes if you're making outgoing calls and they agree to pay for part of your line rental (great if you have, for example, free calls in the evening). I used to charge the % of chargeable calls made for work applied to the line rental when I used to do this. The other advantage is also you only have to carry one phone around.

It's one to come to an agreement with the employers on.

ultrak3wl

Can an employer require you to use a mobile phone which they provide for you? I used to have one but I gave it back - we had to use a cumbersome procedure to itemise and pay for personal calls and it was just too tedious sorting it all out. Plus their tariff was expensive e.g. pound a megabyte for data. Strangely they view use of a company phone as a "perk" which they are "letting you have" but now I'm expecting them to moan eventually when they realise I've packed mine in.

Sid_Harper

Generally an employer gives you something to fulfil your duties, otherwise what's the point? Most 'perks' are taxable when used for private purposes so all you're doing is saving on the outlay for it because you give it back when you leave.

If your job is such that you have to be contactable, and they give you a phone for that purpose, then I would say yes you are obliged to use it because it's effectively part of your job description. Otherwise you should be doing something else!

ultrak3wl

Don't want to derail the thread but I think this is quite an interesting one. My job involves sitting in an office all day not roaming around being given instructions over the phone so I don't "need" it in that context. Like many companies though they would love it if all employees were "always on" if they feel like contacting you outside of normal hours and are trying to grow a cultural expectation that you will always be available. Mobile phone is the major avenue for that.

It's awkward to have a company phone because you can't really also have your own personal one. Who needs carrying two phones around, remembering to recharge them both, etc. You can't solve the problem by turning the phone off when you finish work I mean, otherwise you'd be turning off your personal calls as well.

The final straw for me was sitting by the side of a pool in Cyprus when someone rang me about some server being down. They had no way of knowing I was on vacation so not their fault but still I don't like it.

ningboo

Ah, but this is the employer wanting my mum to use her personal phone - they don't want to pay the bill or contribute to it, so they have told all her colleagues to 'buzz' their number and they will call them back. Apart from it being awkward and silly, it means that they are asking all the staff to give their personal numbers out, and expecting them to pay the line rental, voicemail charges (they often leave messages), and even electricity to charge the things up - it sounds really tight to complain about, as they pretty much all have phones - but why should their employer benefit from this?

Sid_Harper

I agree. She can just say I am not going to use my personal phone for this purpose. Could go one of three ways: the good (they say OK, and change their policy!), the bad (they give her a phone), and the plain ugly (they start making her life difficult, and would more than likely be a path to some employment tribunal where I think she would be in the right).

A friend of ours was a care worker a few years back and had to 'buzz' the office when she got to a client. But she DIDN'T have a mobile! And she was not allowed to use the client's phone - so they basically seemed to phone all the clients to keep tabs on where she was at every minute of the day! Ridiculous!