Just a quick question.
A mate of mine has been working on a contract now for a number of years. He is given a vehicle with which to perform his role as a Field Engineer and essentially works from home covering his local geographical area for a national network.
For a number of years now he has been able to bill from the moment he leaves his home until he returns home.
There are a number of permies scattered across the country in the same boat and they have also historically worked this way.
Just before Xmas the management informed the permies that they would be starting to work taking into account a Policy that the parent company has that stipulates employees must give the first and last 30 minutes of the day for free as that constitutes "reasonable travel time".
This Policy was clearly written to apply to office-based staff, and has never been enforced for Field-based staff. The permies are kicking off about it and claiming it is illegal and constitutes a change to their Terms and Conditions. Who knows how that will work for them. The permies also pay the taxes to have private use of the vehicles.
However, my mate and the other Contractors are not permitted to use the vehicles for private use.
It is their contention that even if they agreed to do this extra unpaid hour, they would be unable to drive anywhere as they are not insured to drive Company vehicles in what would effectively be their Private time.
Anyone got any experience of this type of thing and able to offer advice?
A mate of mine has been working on a contract now for a number of years. He is given a vehicle with which to perform his role as a Field Engineer and essentially works from home covering his local geographical area for a national network.
For a number of years now he has been able to bill from the moment he leaves his home until he returns home.
There are a number of permies scattered across the country in the same boat and they have also historically worked this way.
Just before Xmas the management informed the permies that they would be starting to work taking into account a Policy that the parent company has that stipulates employees must give the first and last 30 minutes of the day for free as that constitutes "reasonable travel time".
This Policy was clearly written to apply to office-based staff, and has never been enforced for Field-based staff. The permies are kicking off about it and claiming it is illegal and constitutes a change to their Terms and Conditions. Who knows how that will work for them. The permies also pay the taxes to have private use of the vehicles.
However, my mate and the other Contractors are not permitted to use the vehicles for private use.
It is their contention that even if they agreed to do this extra unpaid hour, they would be unable to drive anywhere as they are not insured to drive Company vehicles in what would effectively be their Private time.
Anyone got any experience of this type of thing and able to offer advice?
