Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977

[Billy Casper]

Question

Can the unfair terms act 1977 be used to defend an employee against an employer who wishes to punish said employee for non compliance of process, even though the employee cannot accurately monitor that process.

some context.

The employee is field based.

The employee has signed a contract in which he agrees to follow the employers processes and procedures.

The Employer gives an average time to complete a task and displays this time on the employees hand held device but this includes travel time to get to a customers address..

The employee can extend the job time and is expected to do so if the task will take longer than the average time given. (not and extension to travel time)

ISSUE.

There is no timer on the job( on the employees device), if a job overruns on site, mid job and the employee cannot work out if an extension is required it is deemed as being non compliant. similarly, an employee can be non compliant if he extends a job where an extension isn't required..(so he can't just extend every job).

The issue is there is no timer or countdown when the job is started, the timings include travel and the job times can be different.

It seems unfair for any punishment to be implemented where the employee cannot accurately monitor the time on a task.

the employer in response just points to the contract in which the employee has agreed to follow procedures and process

could this be classed as an unfair term

thank you

[atticus]

In principle, the Unfair Contract Terms Act can apply to an employment contract, but I cannot see that the circumstances described come within the ambit of section 3.

[Billy Casper]

Thank you for the reply. I am obviously not in the legal field. could you elaborate a little more please. Am I right in assuming you mean it wouldn't be "unreasonable' ?

[atticus]

No. That would not be a correct assumption.

The Act deals with contract terms that purport to limit or exclude liability for breaches of contract.