Some drivers are lucky enough to work nine to five,
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Monday to Friday with time to see the kids in the evening and cheer the home team on at weekends. But more and more employers are moving away from traditional weekly working patterns to a system of annualised hours. Around two million workers in the UK no longer have their weekly hours defined in their contracts of employment. Instead they are required to work an agreed number of hours a year, for which they're paid on a salaried, monthly or weekly basis. Drivers work a set roster, which includes "bank" or "reserve" hours, used to cover sickness and training absence or operational requirements. Annual and bank holidays are built into the roster.
The reasoning behind annualised hours is that it doesn't make sense to pay your drivers to sit in their cabs if their loads aren't ready, or to push them to their limits when demand peaks. This system can enhance flexibility and efficiency by matching staff levels to fluctuating workloads. In theory, profitability can be improved by reducing overtime bills.
According to Transport and General Workers Union national officer Ron Webb, cutting overtime was one of the reasons for introducing annualised hours negotiations at London dairy MD Foods: "They were working long days and wanted to try to move away from that culture," he explains. "Their sickness record was good and they wanted more humane working hours."
Reduced working hours are certainly beneficial for drivers who know they no longer have to work 60 hours a week or more to make up their wages—providing their hourly rate is increased accordingly. They are guaranteed a regular, set income with more structured and predictable working and leisure time.
Gaining the flexibility of having drivers work when you want them to should benefit your business, but in return their package should recognise any inconvenience and disruption to their personal lives.
One potential problem with annualised hours is the implementation. Drivers, like any other workers, tend to fear change. "It takes a while to learn about annual hours," says Rachael Tofts, human resources manager with MD Foods. "If managers and staff change, it doesn't help. People are reluctant to change and they fight it for a while."
By way of example she reports that one of the company's sites has been slower to adopt the changes than its site in London, so the London-based drivers have been talking through their arrangements with their colleagues at the depot where things are moving at a slower pace. One thing Tofts has learned is the value of communication: "No matter how well you think you've communicated, you must do more."
Transport, she readily admits, was one of the toughest areas for MD Foods to get right in its annualised hours negotiations. "The rosters are affected by outside influences, such as supermarkets changing when they want their milk, traffic problems and roadworks," she says. Also, fitting drivers' ters around the drivers' hours regs can on-iplications.
Unions might be e resist funda mental changes to patterns, but in fact they seem p atic; accepting moves that increase e ncy and, in the long term, should safeguard their members' interests.
"If the boss is trying to make the availability of drivers coincide with work then it makes for a profitable business, the benefits of which can be passed on to drivers," says United Road Transport Union spokesman Doug Curtis.
The T&G has no set policy on annualised hours, except that an agreement should improve terms and conditions, or at least maintain the status quo.
Now that Transport Minister Gavin Strang has indicated that the UK is likely to comply with the EU's 48-hour working week, the transport industry may soon be forced to consider adopting annualised hours.
This could help hauliers meet scheduled deliveries, says USDAW national officer Val Pugh: "Transport companies won't want five working days split exactly. They will schedule the business around the same trips on a shorter working week."
by Nicky Clarke Annualised hours: what are they?
The annualised hours system involves staff working a total number of hours in a year, in line with operational needs. This avoids having drivers standing around with nothing to do at quiet times, or companies having to pay overtime during peak periods. The total hours are worked on a rostered system throughout the year, but employees are paid the same salary each month regardless of the number of hours they work. Some companies still make overtime payments for hours worked over the contracted number; others credit the employees with these hours to be used against contracted hours. Moving to annualised hours will not suit every company. But if your business has seasonal peaks and troughs, pays a lot of overtime, or needs to respond rapidly to trends, it might be worth considering. According to Ron Webb of the T&G you need a large workforce in order for the rosters to work: he suggests a minimum of 50 drivers.
Sample system • 52.18 weeks at 40 hours per week, equals 2,087 hours a year. • Deduct 20 days for annual holidays at eight hours a day, equals 160 hours a year. • Deduct eight bank holidays at eight hours a day, equals 64 hours a year. • Therefore total working time equals 1,863 hours a year.
• You might wish to allow for sickness at, say, 5% a year; 5% of 2,087 hours equals a deduction of 104 hours. • This gives total of 1,759 hours to be worked per employee. Annualised hours and the operator The annualised hours agreement at London-based MD Foods is one of the biggest and most comprehensive of its kind. It was introduced last year following 18 months of negotiations and covers 2,000 employees, including 300 drivers based at Preston, Leeds, North London and Newcastle.
The negotiations, carried out with national officers and senior stewards from the T&G and the GMB, took so long because staff were on four different agreements with different terms and conditions. "We had to find commonalities and differences," says the T&G's Ron Webb.
Some members, he adds, wouldn't change back even if they were offered the choice, because the agreement has improved terms and conditions, including holidays and pensions. MD Foods supplies supermarkets, which are notorious for changing their requirements at short notice. "We needed to be in a position to change rosters quickly without sifting round the table with the union each time," says MD Foods human resources manager Rachael Tofts. The drivers have a say in when they are going to work. They're paid a higher hourly rate and most have a higher guaranteed salary. Tofts is not saying whether the move to annualised hours has saved the firm money, but stresses that setting up the system incurs the costs of software and the time needed for negotiations and consultation. The company has 100 rosters and three options of contracted hours which equate to drivers working an average of 48 hours, 44 hours or 40 hours a week. "The maximum of 48 hours fits in with the EU Working Time Directive," says Toils. "By the time staff have taken time off for holidays they work 38 or 39 hours on average, so rather than drivers pushing their hours to boost their income they know what their hours are going to be and they have a set salary. This means there are no benefits in smudging the tacho—they do the job properly." Of those hours, 90% are rostered with 10% put in a banking system which are then used for "amber call". This means that drivers are on call 30 minutes before and 45 minutes after the official hours of their shifts to cover for absentees or to finish jobs. Unused banked hours are wiped off the slate at the end of the year and drivers are credited hours if they work beyond their rostered hours.