Time off but only for emergencies
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• The Government is moving to tighten up new laws on absenteeism in a move that will please haulage employers.
This week an amendment was due to be inserted in the Employment Relations Bill which will restrict employees' right to take unpaid time off to a -family emergency", rather than the "domestic incident" which was in the original draft.
Once the bill becomes law a driver will not be able to tell his boss at the last minute that he cannot come in because of a leaky boiler. Only something like a child's sickness or a family death will qualify.
The bill is intended to be a safety net for workers whose firms do not offer even the most basic concessions to the demands of home life. Until it becomes law such workers could face the sack for taking time off to deal with a close family bereavement.
The new legislation will also require all employers to allow up to three months' unpaid leave to allow employees to look after young children.
Ruth Poll. head of employment at the RHA, had been fearful that in its original form the new law would have allowed drivers to call off their day's work at short notice for relatively trivial reasons, 'leaving a lorry standing in the yard for the day".