1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172 
Shake on it
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
You hire a new driver, agree a wage and hand him the keys to a tuck, But what about a contact of employment? Patric Cunnane reports.
The first thing to remember about a contract of employment is that it includes much more than meets the eye. Even if you don't give an employee a contract he can still prove that he has one. And everything that he does under your instruction forms part of that contract.
To put it simply an employment contract includes both the written and the unwritten — the latter being what unions refer to as "custom and practice".
It is a legal agreement between the employer and the employee regulating working practices and the benefits received by the worker in return for his/her labour.
Once a contract is established an employer cannot legally change its terms without the agreement of the employee. The contract represents an offer of work by the employer and its acceptance by the employee.
Terms and conditions Key elements of the contract must be in writing and issued to the employee. These include several documents: the letter of appointment setting out the job offer; documentation describing how the work should be carried out; details of pay and benefits; and relevant clauses from any union agreement relating to pay. working hours and redundancy terms.
Bundle all this together and you have the employee's 'terms and conditions'.
Like other businessmen, hauliers require a range of workers operating under differing types of contract. These might well include full or part-time permanent contracts; temporary and fixed-term contracts; self-employed contracts; and personal contracts.
Most of your drivers and support staff will be on permanent contacts, either full or part-time. A permanent contract establishes certain rights from the day the new employee walks into your yard (see panel). Permanent contras:is have no termination date other than the date of retirement,which must be the same for women and men.
Workers on temporary contracts — the extra drivers you take on at Christmas, for example — have the right to the same terms and conditions as permanent employees doing the same type of work. Such workers now have additional protection under the Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002,giving them the right to paid holiday, sick pay and pension rights.
They also have protection from unfair dismissal and must receive benefits such as maternity leave, paternity leave and parental rights. Where unions do not exist many employees now receive personal contracts instead of terms and conditions generated by collective bargaining. They are similar to standard contracts, differing only from each other in the rate of pay. They carry just as much legal weight as standard contracts.
Owner-drivers are self-employed but they are still deemed to have a contractual relationship with the company they work for. However, this gives them very limited rights in terms of employment benefits and they are excluded from most of the benefits enjoyed by employees.
In the road transport industry this remains a confusing issue as many tippermen work exclusively for one quarry owner and, in practice, operate as though they were employed workers, arriving on set times and days and carrying out the same work.
This was most notably tested in the early nineties when many tippermen joined the National Owner-Drivers Association (NODA) and challengedTarmac in the Derbyshire area, claiming status as a trade union and demanding increases in rates. However. Tarmac was successful in establishing that NODA could not represent its subcontractors in this way — it took out injunctions against several tippermen to break the 'strike'. •