Hi all.
I’ve been sacked by my employer after an rear end collision with lgv which was stopped after curve on dual line white line, and looking to turn left in to road which is unsuitable for hgv ( I assuming sat nav driving ). Police was reported by other party for insurance claim only. And I have not been penalized.
Damages in my truck was little enough to let me drive ( front plastics smashed and bended cabin shock absorber )
Facts: I drove 10mph less then limit , visibility point on curve in to the LGV was max 50 meters , wet road
Highway code state with my speed stopping distance should be 64 meters , my stopping distance was about 45. I had also abs fault in unit which was reported 2 times about 2 months before, whatever…
I had 2 runs that day and thats happend on first delivery. I reported that to my boss and i said I am able to finish delivery. When I drop trailer at customer i rang my office to ask if that possible they could let me finish after first run and send other driver ( i knew there was few drivers canceled in the morning ) I said I am a bit stress and tired after that collision and i would to check lorry better.
That was refused , so I jump in to truck and drove back. The after 2 hours driving they send me a message to let me know the second run is sorted and i can finish. end.
Next day after i made collision raport. They gave me a letter with allegation :
…accident was entirely due to your negligence and failure to pay due care and attention.
I was terminated with that note:
…evidence… ( my story… accident raport (as i wrote) and post accident raport where they alleged i refused second delivery and i said I was tired before accident… i didnt sign and seen this lies)
…evidence was made available to you prior to the meeting and the allegation is straight forward in that it was to establish whether or not you were responsible for the accident and on the balance of probability it is my conclusion that you were despite your statement of mitigation that you were tired and having reviewed your hours worked there is no evidence of excessive hours worked in contravention of the drivers hours regulations.
…decision to terminate your employment with effect from today You are entitled to one weeks notice which will be paid in lieu.
Ok. but… after 7 months i should get 4 weeks nothice and normal week wages, that was bit more.
They refuse appeal with no explaination why , just like that. We hold the decision… bye. They ignore my greviance about notice and pay with the same ignorance.
Then when i start collecting evidence for claim I found that my working week average hours in last 7 months was 50.25 hours.
All 17 weeks period was more then 48 (from 48.5 to 52). Next day when i went company office, they said thats a legal, and I sign opt out together with night working hours. And I really sign that with thinking thats about them nights :
The Working Time Regulations 1998 provide that the average working week, with overtime, shall not exceed 48 hour. As your working week generally exceeds 48 hours, we must have an agreement with you to say that you opt out of the 48 hour maximum average working week. Please see attached a copy of the agreement, if you could please sign it and hand it back in to the office, so that you can continue exceeding 48 hours per week.
Now I got problem with finding answers:
- how is that related in to the reason for dismissal [on the balance of probability it is my conclusion that you were despite your statement of mitigation that you were tired and having reviewed your hours worked there is no evidence of excessive hours worked in contravention of the drivers hours regulations] where first is false alegation and second is a breach of employer duty of care.
- how company with 50 drivers could give me wtr1998 working week opt out to sign, if even my contract with company state :
The maximum average 48-hour week is calculated over a rolling 17-week reference period. Your working time and the taking of rest breaks will also be determined by the EU Drivers’ Hours Regulations (561/2006) and the Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. - and finally - is that opt out a legal document - can be use against me in tribunal??
Thank for any good comments, and sorry for any mistakes in text, verbal or grammatical. I’m learning English
Have a good weekend everybody. Thanks