Work for a multi drop company delivering furniture and doors etc. nationwide multi-manned in a 7.5t.In my contract there is a part saying ‘in accordance with the law for every 4 and a half hours you WORK they will take the next 45 minutes pay for a break’ yet they don’t put a break In every 4 and a half hours and only usually put 1 break in when we should have 2-3 according to our contract. As far as I know there is no law saying you should have 45 minutes after 4 and a half hours work, only after 4 and a half hours driving or a minimum of 15 minutes after 6 hours work, had a flick on the Internet and am I right in saying that stating false laws in a contract is ‘misrepresentation’?. and where would I stand on this?. I worked out I’m losing at least £100 a month.
newey91:
Work for a multi drop company delivering furniture and doors etc. nationwide multi-manned in a 7.5t.In my contract there is a part saying ‘in accordance with the law for every 4 and a half hours you WORK they will take the next 45 minutes pay for a break’ yet they don’t put a break In every 4 and a half hours and only usually put 1 break in when we should have 2-3 according to our contract. As far as I know there is no law saying you should have 45 minutes after 4 and a half hours work, only after 4 and a half hours driving or a minimum of 15 minutes after 6 hours work, had a flick on the Internet and am I right in saying that stating false laws in a contract is ‘misrepresentation’?. and where would I stand on this?. I worked out I’m losing at least £100 a month.
Your idea of when you should have breaks is correct. What the contract is saying is wrong (the accordance with the law part). I’m not sure whether it amounts to ‘misrepresentation’ though, even if it did there’s not much you could do about it as as far as i know the legitimacy of any contract can only be tested in a court/tribunal.
Am i right in assuming what it means to you is that you could be working a long day and getting three 45 min breaks deducted, so you’re losing 2 hours 15 mins on that day by them deducting it as break?
Yeah pretty much. We could be doing a 12 hour shift and should have 2 45 minute breaks in accordance with our contract but they’ll only put 1 in the route but take 2 from our wages. So I lose at least £100 a month.
newey91:
Yeah pretty much. We could be doing a 12 hour shift and should have 2 45 minute breaks in accordance with our contract but they’ll only put 1 in the route but take 2 from our wages. So I lose at least £100 a month.
Have you discussed this with your manager ?
Ask to renegotiate your contract. They can’t sack you for asking and you might get it sorted.
Actually, I think the whole business of deducting wages for breaks is a highly questionable, morally at the very least. If I’m not being paid, I’d like to be off somewhere taking photographs, sailing, or canoeing - in other words something totally unrelated to work. NOT, for example, being sat at Vémars unable to use the bogs as fifteen coachloads of schoolkids are queueing there already (other equally disgusting service areas are available), watching the clock tick round for 45 minutes because that’s what the law says I must do then…
Just to be clear, sitting there looking at the clock for 45 minutes after a maximum of 4.5h accumulated driving is, in my opinion, as much part of the job as obeying all the other pieces of legislation 
A few lads have asked about the contract, the usual answer is ‘if you don’t like it you know where the door is’
Unfortunately there aren’t many full time jobs to walk out the door for. I don’t mind working hard but I expect to be paid for the work I do.
The other option is to take the breaks and come back in later which will obviously have a knock on effect to what time you can start in the morning.
Sometimes it’s a 7:30-22:00, then back up at 7:30 the next day. I’d quite happily take all the breaks I’m entitled to and even take my weekly rest in the truck if it went that far, to make a point to them, but the other lad won’t do it.
They don’t take our hours worked from the tachograph cards or time sheets either, they just take them from the trackers.
The finer points in contracts sometimes only come out after you have already started with an employer, as you will not receive the full printed version of your T&C’s until then (if at all). Some managers/agencies seem to forget about these important details when you go for interviews and they only appear later when you querie something, e.g. paid breaks, start times, nights out etc.
Most companies do not pay their employees whilst they are taking a break, whether it’s the clerk in the office or you as a driver.
An example FLT driver works 06:00 - 14:00 = 8 hrs at work, only gets paid 7.5 hours after lunch break is deducted from the actually worked.
Most transport companies do not pay their drivers whilst taking their first 45 minute break (a few do), some do not pay any breaks at all, which is where P.O.A becomes important to some drivers.