Not me but the wife. She’s just got back from a staff meeting where they’ve been told that the company are providing them with a work phone but they have to pay £15 a month towards it from her wages. They’ve been told that they can claim this back in tax (she doesn’t earn enough to pay tax though)
Also, they are going to programme these phones with other members of staff’s personal numbers. Ive told her that they can’t do that due to data laws but not too sure where we stand with the phone.
She has said she doesn’t want it, but they are introducing a new system where the work will be paperless and have insisted they are needed.
Has anyone else come across this who can give any advice?
We have phones provided, but they’re restricted to calling other drivers. We get given customer contact details but can’t call them for directions etc unless we use our own phones. This ■■■■■■ me right off. Unless I’ve got a hectic day I wont call but will waste a bit more diesel driving around searching for the address.
When I worked for Initial/Rentokil we had company phones which we could use for personal use. We just entered a * before any personal calls and received a bill every three months. Great system which everyone favoured.
m1cks:
Not me but the wife. She’s just got back from a staff meeting where they’ve been told that the company are providing them with a work phone but they have to pay £15 a month towards it from her wages. They’ve been told that they can claim this back in tax (she doesn’t earn enough to pay tax though)
Also, they are going to programme these phones with other members of staff’s personal numbers. Ive told her that they can’t do that due to data laws but not too sure where we stand with the phone.
She has said she doesn’t want it, but they are introducing a new system where the work will be paperless and have insisted they are needed.
Has anyone else come across this who can give any advice?
If thy want the staff to be able to contact other members of staff, which doesn’t seem unreasonable, then the number should be the works phone.
If the phone is needed for business purposes, then the company should be providing them FOC, if they are worried about misuse there are many ways to monitor the use.
This is where workers need to stand together, sadly unlikely in these days, as a lone worker making a stand just labels them as a trouble maker.
We have work phones, but only programmed with other work phone numbers. If someone wants me to have their personal number they will give it to me. Without your permission personal details i.e phone numbers cannot be given to someone else. data protection. It’s the same when you get a cold call from any company trying to sell you something. Ask em where they got your number as they have breached data protection because you didn’t give it to them or give permission for it to be sold on.
Thanks for the replies.
I don’t have an issue if they want her to use a work phone but we’re not paying for it. As for giving the number out, I hope she misheard and they are going to give each other the work phone numbers. Some of her colleagues might not like my telephone manner if they call her personal phone (unlike here, it doesn’t have a swear filter)
Lots of questions she’s been armed with to go back there and I’ll let you know the outcome.
when we up graded or phones at work we were given a option, the company would go on a tariff where we could call each other and that would be about it with a crappy low end phones, or if we wanted they would get us top of the range phones either iphone 4s or Samsung s3’s with unlimited calls, internet and txt’s but if we wanted that we would have to pay £5 a week, we all decided to go down the second choice, now I can phone who I like when ever for as long as I like, I can tether my laptop to the phone and surf the net all night (was using a dongle before and that was costing £15/£20 a month alone), i watch tv on my phone. each drivers phone is his and no one else uses them, I don’t even bother with a personal phone now mine stays with me 365 days a year
If company requires you to have a phone company provides and pays for it - simple! Like ppe if it is a requirement then the company provides/pays for it.
m1cks:
Also, they are going to programme these phones with other members of staff’s personal numbers. Ive told her that they can’t do that due to data laws
By personal numbers they’ll mean the numbers of the provided phones.
