Ive been at the same company for the last 19 months on agency, Monday to Friday work with the odd Saturday here and there. A month or so ago the agency started ringing on a Friday to see if I want to work a Saturday or Sunday at a different company, I’ve been knocking them back but a couple of the other lads have done a couple of shifts. Now with my holiday in the sun coming up in November I thought I’d do every other Saturday for the other company to earn a few extra quid, so I phoned the agency to tell them I’d be available and it turns out the client I’m currently placed at doesn’t want us working for this other company at the weekend, so the agency won’t give us that work or any other weekend work. I think it’s a bit of a ■■■■ take as basically we are only allowed to work for the long term placement company.
I’m going to speak to the agency as I ain’t happy being told when I can and can’t work, has anyone got any idea what I can say to them about it, coz I normally end up losing my rag and don’t really want to.
Theres nothing stopping you speaking to another agy and getting the extra work elsewhere.
I wouldn`t bother speaking to your regular agy about them not giving the saturday shifts as it will fall on deaf ears.
As an agy driver your free to go and work anywhere so long as your legal to start when agy No1 wants you to
peirre:
Theres nothing stopping you speaking to another agy and getting the extra work elsewhere.
As an agy driver your free to go and work anywhere so long as your legal to start when agy No1 wants you to
Cheers Peirre, I do realise that but don’t wanna rock the boat at my placement as its decent, long term work
But info would still be on digi card, that’s how the company found out some of us were workin weekends, when they down loaded the card. I feel if they want to restrict us like that, then they should pay us a bit more, that’s what I’m gonna be askin when I chat with the agency.
Customer seems to want his cake and eat it here, understand why up to a point but unless you’re putting in some serious in week hours, i reckon they are being a bit unfair.
Only you know how the regular weekday customer will react, it might not worry the agency but it’ll be a sod if the customer hoofs you out from your regular bread and butter stuff for doing other weekend work.
Edit…have you spoken to your main customer to see if they have any weekend stuff with them?
how can you do every saturday? unless you are doing a really short shift sat so that you get your 45 hrs break in, as you can only reduce every other week end and then you have to pay back by the third, i can understand why the company you work for full (time all but through the agency), don’t want you to work over the weekend as you could end up with reduced breaks or even not being able to start at the time they require you on a monday morning. i know some companies now that won’t let their drivers do any reduced breaks, but i just think thats to keep their tracking of hours simple
Juddian:
Customer seems to want his cake and eat it here, understand why up to a point but unless you’re putting in some serious in week hours, i reckon they are being a bit unfair.
Only you know how the regular weekday customer will react, it might not worry the agency but it’ll be a sod if the customer hoofs you out from your regular bread and butter stuff for doing other weekend work.
Edit…have you spoken to your main customer to see if they have any weekend stuff with them?
I average around 60 hours a week Monday to Friday, also get a fair bit of POA in as well. I worked Saturday just gone for the main customer, but weekend work is not very often available. I dont normally like weekend work, it’s just with my holiday coming, I’d only be doing 2-3 in the next couple of months and then no more after that.
wildfire:
how can you do every saturday? unless you are doing a really short shift sat so that you get your 45 hrs break in, as you can only reduce every other week end and then you have to pay back by the third, i can understand why the company you work for full (time all but through the agency), don’t want you to work over the weekend as you could end up with reduced breaks or even not being able to start at the time they require you on a monday morning. i know some companies now that won’t let their drivers do any reduced breaks, but i just think thats to keep their tracking of hours simple
I wouldn’t work every Saturday, just every other. I worked Saturday for 6 1/2 hours and had my 45 off.
I can understand them not wanting me to work elsewhere as well, but at the same time it’s like they are restricting my earnings by stopping me earning more cash.
Juddian:
If you’re getting 60 hours in then i can understand why the customer doesn’t want you doing any other work, even if you are booking lots of POA.
Juddian:
If you’re getting 60 hours in then i can understand why the customer doesn’t want you doing any other work, even if you are booking lots of POA.
why?
If a drivers getting 60 hours in then unless he’s booking a serious amount of hours as POA then he’ll be close to the 48 hour average.
Customer doesn’t know how many hours a driver may have to do on a weekend shift if for another client, so likely to push him well over 48 hours, and they don’t want the risk.
Customer probably doesn’t want any future problems of drivers hours, so simple solution is don’t allow it, if driver does it without their approval then they have the option of requesting he doesn’t come back.
It might seem unfair , but as i said i can understand why the customer feels like this, be different if driver was only getting 45 hours total in but he’s already getting 60, i can see both sides here, thats why i suggested Selby speaks to his weekday customer to try and get a bit of extra work for them only, they might be happier with this.
As long as you remain legal, it’s nothing to do with them. You are not an employee and as an agency worker you are free to work for whom you wish.
If they want to dictate to you…they must either employ you or offer to pay you the money you are losing as compensation.
The point is that, if the work dries up they will drop you like a hot tatty without a moment’s notice. That being the case, why should you be dictated to? They cannot have it every way…
Truckulent:
As long as you remain legal, it’s nothing to do with them. You are not an employee and as an agency worker you are free to work for whom you wish.
If they want to dictate to you…they must either employ you or offer to pay you the money you are losing as compensation.
The point is that, if the work dries up they will drop you like a hot tatty without a moment’s notice. That being the case, why should you be dictated to? They cannot have it every way…
I would normally agree with you, but in this case the OP’s been there regularly for 19 months, lot to be said for that and getting 60 hours in to boot.
I think Im just gonna go along with what they want, I think it’s unfair, but I can also see it from their side also, as I’ve been there 19 months I don’t want to rock the boat, it’s easy work with good hours and the odd night out also.
I take the point about they will drop me when the work goes quiet, but that’s only happened 1 day in 19 months so I can’t complain too much.
Why not just be honest? Go in & speak to your boss at the co. Explain that you’ve got a holiday abroad coming up & could use a few extra beer tokens. Tell him you’ve turned outside work down due to their policy & that you would be very grateful if he could find you a few Saturdays before your hol. even if its only half a day.
However, be ready to be reasonable, he might want a commitment in exchange that you would continue to be available to do sats on the run up to Xmas after your hol.
Truckulent:
As long as you remain legal, it’s nothing to do with them. You are not an employee and as an agency worker you are free to work for whom you wish.
If they want to dictate to you…they must either employ you or offer to pay you the money you are losing as compensation.
The point is that, if the work dries up they will drop you like a hot tatty without a moment’s notice. That being the case, why should you be dictated to? They cannot have it every way…
i understand what you are saying truckulent, you are free to work for who and when you like, BUT being in one placement for over 19 months is a good crack, the company has a responsability to make sure all driver comply with the drivers regulations and that their agency staff do as well, within their duty of care, they will be the o licence holders not the agency. i don’t know what size of company they are? but if they are one of the big one they will have company rules that their drivers have to abide by and as such the agency staff will fall into that as well.
as the op says he doesn’t want to rock the boat and to be honest neither would i, it sounds like to good a placement to screw up just for a holiday
Whatever about whatever, if you want to keep working at the mon-fri client, i’d do as requested. I hear where you’re coming from but ideals don’t pay the bills.
all good advice lads, thanks, I’m just going to go along with what they want, easiest and safest option. I was only lookin for a few extra quid in the bank to cover my hols as my 2 weeks off will only be paid at 8 hours a day, so just wanted to cover the shortfall. I’ve had the agency phon me as I called them yesterday to talk about it but nobody was available, probably done me a favour as I wasn’t overly happy about it yesterday.
I work for ND and they do keep a good check on our WTD and driving hours so I don’t blame them for not wanting us to work else where.
