I read somewhere that between midnight and 4 am and any shift starting between these times is classed as night duty and therefore you cannot do more than 10 hours duty in a 24 hour period, i also read that i can opt out of this under a collective agreement. What is actually required for a collective agreement to be binding, if i dont agree with the agreement am i not part of said agreement and so would be bound by the ten hour rule? I realy dont want to start work at 4 am and do a 15 hour shift!!!
A collective agreement could be down to whatever the representative union(s) voting in majority, all non/ other union employees are bound by this, or by the employers sticking a piece of paper under the nose of each driver and saying ‘sign this’, 50.000000000001% sign it (whether they read it or not, whether they understood it or not, whether they were bullied into it or not) and it’s a collective agreement.
It can be reviewed yearly, but you’ll never get over 50% of the dominant union(s) or non-unionised workforce with the organisation/ ■■■■■■■■ to opt back in.
As an individual, you have no say whatsoever beyond either accepting it or moving on.
shullbit:
I read somewhere that between midnight and 4 am and any shift starting between these times is classed as night duty and therefore you cannot do more than 10 hours duty in a 24 hour period, i also read that i can opt out of this under a collective agreement. What is actually required for a collective agreement to be binding, if i dont agree with the agreement am i not part of said agreement and so would be bound by the ten hour rule? I realy dont want to start work at 4 am and do a 15 hour shift!!!
The 10hrs is driving and other work, so if you have 5hrs of break or POA you can still do a 15hr shift.
…I woudn’t make a collective agreement to THAT though, if I w 
ere you!
We haven’t opted out as we’re salaried and yet one of our night lads was standing at the booking on desk wondering why we couldn’t do more hours. Before I could get my hands on his throat the shift manager on the other side of the jump explained things to him in a nice way! 
Vid:
A collective agreement could be down to whatever the representative union(s) voting in majority
This is not correct. It isn’t just union drivers, it is all drivers. It also doesn’t have to be done by a union but can be done by drivers reps acting on the wishes of their drivers.
Basically a company needs to poll their drivers and get a majority agreement.
TiredAndEmotional:
We haven’t opted out as we’re salaried and yet one of our night lads was standing at the booking on desk wondering why we couldn’t do more hours. Before I could get my hands on his throat the shift manager on the other side of the jump explained things to him in a nice way!
That’s the key. Salaried - you want NO agreement. There will probably not be any overtime, in any case paid at least - so why volunteer to work excessive hours?
Hourly Rate - You want the availability of Overtime, which means having the ability to go beyond 10 hours working to get that overtime.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could choose to do 3x15 hour shifts per week if we wanted, and book 15 hours overtime @ time and a half or better each and every week?
You’re talking about a driver going up to £50k - IF the hourly rate makes that overtime worth it… 
Vid:
A collective agreement could be down to whatever the representative union(s) voting in majority, all non/ other union employees are bound by this, or by the employers sticking a piece of paper under the nose of each driver and saying ‘sign this’, 50.000000000001% sign it (whether they read it or not, whether they understood it or not, whether they were bullied into it or not) and it’s a collective agreement.It can be reviewed yearly, but you’ll never get over 50% of the dominant union(s) or non-unionised workforce with the organisation/ ■■■■■■■■ to opt back in.
As an individual, you have no say whatsoever beyond either accepting it or moving on.
It’s not quite so simple. The opt-out may be by “collective agreement” or a “workforce agreement”. In the case of a collective agreement, it must be enacted by an officlal trade union.
In the case of a workforce agreement, it must be enacted by a representative of the workforce, elected via a secret ballot.
Unless the workforce consists of less than 20 employees, in which case the agreement may be considered binding if the employer is able (in a simple fashion) to gain the signatures of the majority of workers, having made the text of the agreement available to all of them before the agreement was to come into effect and before signatures were sought (i.e. the employer cannot simply submit it like an individual contract or send it around round-robin style - he must first give all the workers a copy of the text, and then go back later once all workers have received a copy of the text to seek all their signatures, the general idea being that they first have an opportunity to read and discuss the text collectively).
A worker is not obliged to give his signature, but the agreement will be binding either if a majority of workers accept it or if an elected representative or a trade union official accepts it.
As stated above POA and breaks not included in 10 hours max working time.