Need a little advice regarding the firm i work for, I have been working here for nearly 6 yrs we deliver concrete to the building trade, my job consists of driving to the job then barrowing in the concrete with a drivers mate.
We set out in the morning at 8am and finish at the earliest 4.45pm when there is no work on. Saturday morning is compulsory 8am to 12pm. These finish times can rise in the summer although now we are not as busy as previous years but we can still be out delivering to 6.30pm and 1.30pm on Saturdays
The problem we have is the 48 hr thing the managers say it does not affect us and that they have had the taco’s looked at. I get our basic hours to 49 minimum even in winter, in the summer we could go close to 60 hrs.
We do not get overtime, we get a day rate and bonus relating to the quantity we deliver and the drivers do not get a break as such, the only time we get is when writing our delivery addresses out in the office while the drivers mate loads the wagon up, the basic day rate isn’t bad and the bonus can be good.
At the moment there are merging 2 yards together and the bonus will be altered maybe not in out favour. I’ve been asked by a few of the other lads to find out where we stand with WTD and any laws that they may be breaking.
I take it you’ve read Lucy’s translation of the WTD into English, which is here.
To break it down even further, there are 4 options for what your working day activities are.
Driving, self explanatory and counts towards your 48 hour working week average.
Other Work. When you are doing your paperwork, barrowing cement and any other activity which can be classified as work. Also counts towards the 48 hrs.
POA or Period of Availability. When you are at work and available to do work, but not actualy doing any, eg in a queue at an RDC waiting to go on a bay.
There is a restriction on what can be called POA in that you should know how long this period will last, roughly. This does not count towards your 48 hrs average.
Rest/break. again self explanatory and does not count towards your 48 hrs average.
As to you not being told the 48hr average doesn’t affect you, If you are one of the many who leave their tacho on “break” all the time, then only driving time will be counted as working, all of the rest of your day will be marked as break on the chart. As I have said above, time on break doesn’t count towards your 48 hrs.
You should also be aware that you must have had a 30 min break in the first 6 hours of your day, and another 15 minutes if your working day will be longer than 9 hours. I’m not to sure about this bit, because I do a lot of driving so have to take the driving breaks, which covers the WTD breaks.
Simon - you make an interesting point that could do with clarification
If you put the tacho on break, but then only have 10 minutes of break the time does not count as break for the tacho regs (less than 15m). As far as I understand, this is therefore classed as other work for the purpose of tacho regs. Is this correct?
If so, does the 10m then count as rest time for the RTD regs or is it also other work?? I’m not aware that there is a minimum rest for the RTD, but there is for the tacho!
gardun:
If you put the tacho on break, but then only have 10 minutes of break the time does not count as break for the tacho regs (less than 15m). As far as I understand, this is therefore classed as other work for the purpose of tacho regs. Is this correct?
Not correct. It is not other work, it is still break time, just not enough to count toward a 45-minute break. With the tacho on ‘bed’ it is recording a break but it can only be used for statutory break requirements when it is over 15-minutes. In effect it doesn’t count as anything for the tacho regs, other than part of your ‘spread over.’
Think about this, VOSA could prosecute you for not having enough rest if you took a 30-minute break and a 14-minute break, they would prosecute you for only taking 44-minutes instead of the required 45. They are counting that 14 minutes as break, just not enough break. They are not counting it as other work or the prosecution would be for only taking 30 minutes.
Need a little advice regarding the firm i work for, I have been working here for nearly 6 yrs we deliver concrete to the building trade, my job consists of driving to the job then barrowing in the concrete with a drivers mate.
We set out in the morning at 8am and finish at the earliest 4.45pm when there is no work on. Saturday morning is compulsory 8am to 12pm. These finish times can rise in the summer although now we are not as busy as previous years but we can still be out delivering to 6.30pm and 1.30pm on Saturdays
The problem we have is the 48 hr thing the managers say it does not affect us and that they have had the taco’s looked at. I get our basic hours to 49 minimum even in winter, in the summer we could go close to 60 hrs.
We do not get overtime, we get a day rate and bonus relating to the quantity we deliver and the drivers do not get a break as such, the only time we get is when writing our delivery addresses out in the office while the drivers mate loads the wagon up, the basic day rate isn’t bad and the bonus can be good.
At the moment there are merging 2 yards together and the bonus will be altered maybe not in out favour. I’ve been asked by a few of the other lads to find out where we stand with WTD and any laws that they may be breaking.
Well thats breaking the law, although drivers do put the tacho on break when unloading I would think VOSA would be interested as to how you have had so much break time.
WTD prosecutions will mainly go after the employer, but VOSA may well go after you if you have been recording on your tacho with the wrong mode, especially if you end up in an accident.
