New contract

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

As with most idiots rinning haulage companies in the UK they expect every little drop of sweat blood and tears out of their drivers, My mate was handed this a few weeks ago given no notice just told to sign it or face the sack.

Do any of you have an understanding of legal contracts etc?.

the following provision is an express written term of your contract of employment:-
Any damage to vehicles, stock or property including non statutory safety equipment that is the result of your carelessness, negligence or deliberate vandalism will render you liable to pay the full or part of the cost of the repair or replacement;
Any loss to us that is the result of your failure to observe rules, procedures or instuction, or is as a result of your negligent behaviour or your unsatisfactory standards of work will render you liable to reimburse to us the full or part of the cost of the loss;
And in the event of a at fault accident whilst driving one of our vehicles you may be required to pay the cost of the insurance excess up to a maximum of £350.00
In the event of a failure to pay, We have the contractual right to deduct such costs from your pay

Can his employer make him pay excess? and hold him responsible for any loss?, or take money from his pay?.

The thing is tohse of us that have driven for a while know the score when it comes to phoning the boss and saying Im not going in there ~(yeh we’ve had bigger than that in there before) but you dont want to risk breaking anything as you have to pay for any damage sustained.

Legal or not?.

L

Legal

2

We had a similar thing with the payment of excess s etc, etc… They also tried it on with “if you get any points on your license and it increases there insurance we had to make up the difference” lol … Out of twenty four of us three signed it the rest just ignored it and so far eight months on heard nothing. Now, with the company i work for i know for a fact that after they had such a low response from us they would have gone down all the routes to try get us to sign it if it were a legal document and they will have consulted there legal eagles ( they re that way out )… As we have heard nothing we have assumed this was an illegal document

3

Hi Jammy, you’ve been around on here about as long as I have.

Legal? I don’t know, but I’d tell 'em go swivel.

I might be wrong, but it looks to me like its written by some office bod rather than a legal eagle.
(thought of my response whilst reading the OP, coincidence mr L used the same term. Great minds think alike?)

They are just trying to cover their arses for any and all ■■■■ ups & know full well that some drivers will be stupid enough to sign it. I hope you won’t be one of them.

I’ve had a curry tonight, I know what I’d do with it tomorrow!

You might want to run it by your union rep & your local Citizens Advice Bureaux.

4

Legal or not it is unethical. No driver I know would deliberately have an accident so it’s bad form to make you pay the insurance excess, it’s not like it would make you less likely to have an accident on the road, knowing that you’d have to fork out £350 for the excess. Any firm that tries to make the driver pay this is not worth working for. If a driver is accident prone then it would be fair enough to show them the door.

5

Does this damage to vehicles include a broken headlight or windscreen because a rock was thrown up by a tipper truck, it may be the tipper drivers fault, but it could be argued you were following too close. I imagine a new headlight for a Volvo FH could run in excess of £100.

I should tell them to swivel too, and if we all did it, they would need to have a slight rethink on their contractual bullying

6

Of course if the contract has a clause about driver abuse, then read this quoted post.

shuttlespanker:
you called scania lifeline for a night heater? :unamused:

coffeholic:
I was thinking that. And it’s not even that cold at the moment, I haven’t had the heating on at home for a week now.

let’s just say, if one of my drivers had called out the dealer breakdown service for a night heater problem, the driver would have got the bill :unamused:
[/quote]

coffeholic:
Carefule, someone will start spouting H&S ■■■■■■■■ at you for saying that. :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

let them, but the driver will still pay the bill :grimacing:
[/quote]
I still agree with Spanky though, take it out of his wages…

7

Not legal. Signed under duress, so it would be invalid in court!

8

Am i right in thinking It’s only legal if you sign it? If the company has problems with drivers wrecking trucks they should be getting rid of the regular offenders, perhaps they’re scared of being sued for unfair dismissal or something?

9

I would have taken the letter then tokd them I was seeking legal advise before signing.

10

Those terms aren’t worth the paper they’re written on and any solicitor would make mincemeat out of an employer at a tribuneral.

11

what a joke, food is going up in price, household bills, fuel, private car insurance, wages are coming down, and now employers taking the ■■■■ trying to make you pay for damage, i would’ve walked out straight away if that was me, if i’m not mistaken reed boardall have something similar for the drivers to sign, even if you snap a suzie or airline, the driver has to pay for it, unless you prove it was wear and tear :slight_smile:

12

An employer cannot make deductions from an employees wage, without the express permission of the employee and only where that permission has been signed in advance by both consenting parties.

13

Name that company.

14

Sorry my reply was a bit brief, but I was on the way out to do something.
OK, years ago a racer had an accident and sadly ended up with spinal injuries and after a few years, decided to sue the organising club. It went to the old bailey and the defence QC said, “You signed a disclaimer form”, prosecution argued and won the case that the disclaimer was signed under duress as if he refused to sign it he would not be allowed to race. Result, he got a very large pay-out.

I have also been told that as the people insisting you sign have no doubt had the employment contract drawn up by a solicitor or some legal bod, unless they offer you the same privilege, ie, let you get it checked by your lawyer, it would be classed an an ‘Illegal contract’ at court. Remember I said TOLD though, but having said that, I did see a case that backed this up a few years ago, but things change.

15

DoYouMeanMe?:
I have also been told that as the people insisting you sign have no doubt had the employment contract drawn up by a solicitor or some legal bod, unless they offer you the same privilege, ie, let you get it checked by your lawyer, it would be classed an an ‘Illegal contract’ at court. Remember I said TOLD though, but having said that, I did see a case that backed this up a few years ago, but things change.

I doubt that a solicitor would use a term such as “Whilst driving one of our vehicles.”

Please see my post above as to my thoughts on this.

How many trucks does this co. operate?

16

You have to stipulate in writing that you are refuting this change in your contract should you wish too.

Otherwise as time passes it can be considered implied terms and conditions of your employment.

17

The LAST THING I would do is to follow the advice given on here in this matter.
The thing you MUST do is to get proper legal advice from a qualified industrial law solicitor
If your employer insists on you signing it before you have the chance to consult as above, sign it and write “under duress” alongside your signature.

And some still claim that we don’t need unions anymore :open_mouth:

18

Dont want to mention the company but if you had to climb a very large (hill) orange thing you might work it out.

Would there be any point in sending to the TC as the company are putting their drivers under undue pressure/stress ?.

19

OMG straight out of the S & K handbook :laughing: :laughing:

20

del949:
The LAST THING I would do is to follow the advice given on here in this matter.
The thing you MUST do is to get proper legal advice from a qualified industrial law solicitor
If your employer insists on you signing it before you have the chance to consult as above, sign it and write “under duress” alongside your signature.

And some still claim that we don’t need unions anymore :open_mouth:

Indeed you could pay an Employment law solicitor to do research into freely available law statutes. I would suggest Gary employmentlitigator.blogspot.com/ BUT As stated there is freely available information for you to gain.

The two issues i would have would be 1) The consultation period 2) The length of time until the employers terms are considered IMPLIED.

Do a search on those two issues. You don’t have to sign it “under duress” as you dont have to sign anything you dont want to full stop.

In reply to Dels post im sure there are plenty of people who would be happy to offer you any advice you want, call themselves a union and charge you a monthly fee. Or if you want to utilise your internet subscription use google, that way you dont put your money towards this workersliberty.org/story/200 … rs-rake-it

and make sure you read this section

Bob Crow (RMT) - £79,564 in salary, £26,115 in pension contributions, £13,013 expenses
John Hannett (USDAW) - £81,742 salary, £16,389 pension contributions
Billy Hayes (CWU) - £83,530 salary, £14,190 pension contributions
Sally Hunt (UCU) - £63,743 salary, £7,612 pension contributions, £2705 car benefit (start of June 2006 to end of May 2007)
Paul Kenny (GMB) - £81,000 salary, £21,000 superannuation (pension contributions), £8,000 car
Dave Prentis (Unison) - £92,187 salary, £23,603 pension contributions, £11,646 expenses and car benefit
Derek Simpson (Unite-Amicus) - £62,673 salary, £16,156 pension contributions, £13,333 car allowance, £26,181 housing benefit
Mark Serwotka (PCS) - £82,094 salary, £26,104 pensions contributions, £2,245 additional housing cost allowance and additional housing cost supplement
Steve Sinnott (NUT) - £99,846 salary, £23,963 pension contributions
Tony Woodley (Unite-TGWU) - £59,333 salary, £9,552 pension contributions, car fuel £3,360
Matt Wrack (FBU) - £66,389 salary, £44,281 pension contributions, £5,134 car

In short do your research ask about and you will be fine.