Posts Tagged ‘Working Time Regulations’
Managing employees business travel time
March 13, 2012 | 
Author Q: Please could you give me some advice on our engineering staff claiming travel time to and from work?
As a company, we do allow our engineers to claim a certain amount of travelling time if they have to leave early to travel a long distance and the same if they are driving home. Unfortunately it is getting to the stage that some engineers are claiming travel time too frequently and I need it to control it.
What I propose to say to them is that they can only claim travel time if it is before 7am and after 5.30pm as this allows one hour either side of their contracted hours.
Please let me know your thoughts.
A: On the presumption that it is not unreasonable for an employee’s commuting time, to and from their normal place of work, to be around an hour, it is quite a regular practice to exclude an hour on the outward and return journey when travelling on business away from the employees base, when that travel time is outside of their normal working hours.
This time is then recorded for the purposes of monitoring working hours under the Working Time Regulations. This is good business practice because if you needed to defend a claim following a health and safety incident or a road accident you would be able to provide appropriate employee records.
Payment for travel to and from a clients site is then down to each company to decide on its own policy. – If it is your normal policy to pay travelling time it would not be unreasonable to exclude the one hour “assumed commuting” time for each journey made outside normal working hours.
How is your policy worded? Do you need any help in drafting a revised policy to reflect the way you wish to cover payment for travelling time?
For answers to questions like this or any other employee related issues why not contact HR Management Support Ltd. for guidance and advice
Posted in General | 
Tags: Answers To Questions, Business Practice, Business Travel, Commuting Time, Contracted Hours, Good Business, Guidance, Health And Safety, Hr Management, Long Distance, Management Support, Presumption, Return Journey, Road Accident, Safety Incident, Support Ltd, Travel Distance, Travel Time, Travelling, Working Time Regulations | 
No Comments »
Accrued Holiday or Holiday Pay (Part-time staff)
In a recent European Court of Justice, (ECJ) Judgement (Case C-486/08 Zentralbetriebsrat der Landeskrankenhäuser Tirols V Land Tirol) it was held that accrued paid leave not yet taken in a leave year cannot be reduced or paid at a reduced rate because the worker then reduces his or her working hours from full to part time. This applies only where the worker has been unable to take the accrued leave before going part-time e.g. return to work part time following maternity leave.
“……….. that the taking of annual leave in a period after the reference period has no connection to the hours worked by the worker during that later period. Consequently, a change, and in particular a reduction, of working hours when moving from full-time to part-time employment cannot reduce the right to annual leave that the worker has accumulated during the period of full‑time employment.
On the other hand, it is indeed appropriate to apply the principle of pro rata temporis, set out in Clause 4.2 of the framework agreement on part-time work, to the grant of annual leave for a period of employment on a part-time basis. For such a period, the reduction of annual leave by comparison to that granted for a period of full-time employment is justified on objective grounds. However, that principle cannot be applied ex post to a right to annual leave accumulated during a period of full-time work. “
Further amendments will be needed to the Working Time Regulations as they currently provide for payment of leave to be calculated by reference to a week’s pay at the time the leave is taken, not when it was accrued.
Statutory Leave Entitlement Increased
Statutory leave entitlement increased from 1 April 2009 under the Working Time Regulations. The new entitlement will rose from 4.8 weeks to 5.6 weeks in the UK. This equates to 28 days per year for employees who work a five day week.
Posted in Employment Law | Tags: 1 April, 28 Days, Days Per Year, Leave Entitlement, Rose, Working Time Regulations | No Comments »
- The search is on for UK’s youngest innovators May 18, 2012The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has launched this year’s Cracking Ideas competition and is inviting children across the country to use their creativity to invent a special space-themed gizmo or gadget. […]
- LUXEMBOURG ARM OF TAX UMBRELLA SCHEME WOUND UP May 17, 2012A Luxembourg company Zigmund Mather S.a.r.l. which had sourced clients for the “Sunday Solutions Scheme”, a tax scheme for the self-employed, has been ordered into liquidation in the High Court on grounds of public interest following an investigation by Company Investigations of The Insolvency Service. […]
- Leamington Spa online recruitment companies now offline May 17, 2012Four Leamington Spa-based recruitment companies, Online Recruiter Ltd, Financial Times Accounts Ltd, First Star Recruitment Limited and Working Solutions Websites Direct Limited, have been ordered into liquidation in the High Court on grounds of public interest following an investigation by Company Investigations of The Insolvency Service. […]
- 21-month prison sentences for Manchester ‘debt solution’ company directors May 17, 2012Two company directors in Manchester, Benjamin Humphreys and Daniel Moore, have been sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment each by Chester Crown Court for fraudulent trading at their debt solution company, Churchwood Corporate Services Limited (CCSL). […]
CIPD
Fareham Businesses – BNI Fortress Fareham