World Wide in default over driver's contract
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• A coach driver claimed at the Industrial Tribunal in London on Tuesday he had been forced to work 12 hours a day by a coach firm operating out of London Airport.
Mr Stanley Burridge, of School Road, Ashford, Middlesex, told the Tribunal that he had worked 30 days with World Wide Coaches Ltd, of Coldharbour Lane, London SE5, before he got his first day off. The only reason he did not leave was he that he had a family to support.
Mr Burridge was asking the Tribunal to establish what his contract of employment was with the company as he had not been supplied with a contract.
Mr Burridge told the Tribunal that when he joined the company in October last year, he had understood he would be working eight hours a day but, because drivers were not allowed to go off duty until relieved, they worked 12 hours a day.
"They even put me down to work 20 hours on the trot on one day — which is against the law as far as driving hours are concerned," said Mr Burridge.
Mr Burridge was working on a coach service between London Airport and the Skyline Hotel.
Because of the excessive hours, one driver went on strike earlier this year. There was a meeting with the management in May and the managing director agreed on an eight-hour shift rota as from July I. "But the day this rota was due to start the managing director threw the whole agreement out," said Mr Burridge.
A week after this he had a slight accident, scratching his coach, and as a result he was dismissed.
Mr Burridge said he had worked eight complete months for the firm and he expected to be paid eight days' holiday pay, but never received any.
Managing director of World Wide Coaches, Mr Frank Alden, of Shenley Avenue, Ruislip, said that this was a new coach service contract and there were initial difficulties. When Mr Burridge was first employed he was given a letter setting out in part his terms of employment plus a rota giving the hours of work and the days off.
The hours were changed but this did not alter his basic terms of employment, Mr Burridge was due for a day off after he had worked 23 days but he changed shift with another man.
Mr Alden said that the company had taken legal advice and from July onwards had issued employees with contracts.
He said that the one day per month of service holiday agreement was only for drivers working from the Coldharbour Lane depot and not those on hotel contracts.
Mr Burridge's working hours were 132 hours a fortnight, the maximum permissible under the Road Traffic Act.
Tribunal chairman Mr S. J. Wilson Price said the company was in default over the contract but what Mr Burridge really wanted was a decision on holiday entitlement.
Mr Wilson Price said the Tribunal had decided that the contract should have been issued including the provision that Mr Burridge was entitled to one day annual holiday per calendar month service, or equivalent pay.
Mr Wilson Price added in his decision: "One cannot get away from the fact that the company has failed. grievously to comply with the Contract of Employment Act."