same here herald.. AC tell them where they can stick the idea of working for nothing this is 2009. times are hard enough
beer in hand also
We are paid like you door to door and always have been,it is actualy stated in my contract.The giving of1/2hr each way has been mentioned before but nothing has come of it.As for overtime due to the'Credit Crunch'we now have to get overtime authorised,but most lads don't want to go cap in hand and be quistioned about where,why and what for so don't bother with overtime anymore,this has created poor response times and poor morale.But i think we are going to have to put up with it for the near future,
cheers (Beer in hand)
herald
I just recognized that your are saying "contacts of employment", and you may mean "contract of employment", is that correct?
Your compensation package is being renegotiated?
I would bet your Government would agree with you, but I am just a service tech too (IANL).
I would want to see this new policy in writing, signed, on the letterhead of the company, if this is being done from the top of the corporation.
This sounds to me like a middle manager trying to improve his numbers at your expense, rather than something that has gone through a major corporation legal and HR departments before being forced on the employee.
If the company is getting paid for your time, then you also must be paid for that same time. I hesitate to call them "your employer" for that time frame, since employee indicates someone being paid.
I am of the firm opinion that theft occurs when someone gets paid for someone else's labor but feels as if they don't have to pay the person doing the work for that same labor/time.
I also bet there are other farther reaching items involved.
Let's look at this as if your time was some solid object, like a block of wood.
The customer pays for a block of wood, and the company receives money for that block of wood, but does not then pay it's supplier for that block of wood.
Is that fair to the wood block supplier? Or is it breach of contract or theft? What is different about the block of wood and the block of time, other than one is tangible?
Of course the other side of the coin is that this may be their method of renegotiating their responsibilities as an employer, and your only recourse may involve finding a new employer. good luck
Hi edward_t.
Thank you for your reply.
Over here in the uk a field service engineer has always been paid from the time he or she leaves their home or as soon as the tracker gets excited.
Then travel time has always been paid by the customer or if hired included in the monthly hire fee.
What has happend in this industry companys have looked at how to save money and a easy way is pay us for 8 hours but making us work a 9.5 hour day which to me is unacceptable.
Over here, on this side of the pond, we rarely get paid to commute to the office, or the equivalent time if we are heading in a direction other than that of the office/shop. There was a thread here not to long ago that brought up this subject, and it was noted that in at least one instance/ the state government had to step in and force the employer to compensate the employees for legitimate travel time. Any time they were charging a customer for, since the customer thinks he is paying for your time,
As far as overtime, this is the norm here, all overtime MUST be approved my the manager and/or the paying customer, and we charge the customer for 1.5x the normal labor rate for overtime calls. further, if they are charging the customer, and you are not at your own "convenience" it seems like they MUST pay you, since they are charging for -your- time.