I will scan the letter at a later date and post it to confirm what I am saying here…
The Transport Minister, Stephen Hammond, has send clarification to me via my MP on what does or does not count as either REST or OTHER WORK when a periodic DCPC course is attended.
Driver CPC training should be counted as working time if the driver is instructed to attend the training as part of their employmment. If, however, a driver organises their own training during their rest period or day off, then it is counted as rest like any other voluntary activity.
tachograph:
I may have missed something but I thought we’d known this for ages
I think the word INSTRUCTED is new ■■?
This word now means that if a company pays for the course, does not pay the driver for their time but INSTRUCTS the driver to attend then its other work but if left to the driver to decide then its rest
It’s hardly “new” ROG, because it’s fundamental to a contract of employment.
In a workplace, there is a relationship between the boss and the worker and that’s governed by a contract of employment.
If the boss gives the worker a reasonable instruction, then the worker should carry out that instruction and receive payment for his/her time. Employment law uses a phrase something like “wages properly payable” for this.
If the worker refuses a reasonable instruction, the company’s disciplinary procedure can be used by the boss. This is also from employment law.
In the clinically sterile world inhabited by ROGs, the above is how it should be.
However, back in the real world inhabited by the rest of us… some bosses tell a worker to attend a course, but then say something like “I’m paying the course fee, but I’m not paying you whilst you attend.”
Now the letter of the law is that the driver is owed wages for attending in the above circumstances, but would the worker really want to rock the boat by taking the employer to a Tribunal over such a (relatively) small sum of money■■?
I don’t support bosses who act in this manner, but I’m just pointing out what goes on in the real world.
The Tribunal case would be a slam-dunk for the worker, especially if the instruction was given in writing and wage slips didn’t tally with the hours ‘worked,’ but at what cost would this hollow victory be when you consider the bigger picture■■?
Without me commenting on it one way or the other, there is a school of thought that suggests that the driver has had something for nothing in that the course fee is actually the driver’s legal responsibility under the DCPC Regs.
Maybe this isn’t quite as clear cut as one might at first think.
When I did my DCPC the instructor said clearly, to us all if your here at your employers request or under orders to attend it work and must be recorded as so, on a tacho or by the means of manual entries.
This was in 2010 and agian 2011 and again 2012, all three times
The first two were company paid on company property and the company even had anologe tachograph charts so we could fill them in and keep with us
I paid for 3, 7 hours courses and did them in my own time and as such would not be counted as work.
Without me commenting on it one way or the other, there is a school of thought that suggests that the driver has had something for nothing in that the course fee is actually the driver’s legal responsibility under the DCPC Regs.