Break Entitlement...

[Snowmonster]

Hello, and good morning...

The question I would like to ask is:

Are all employees in the same organization allowed the same length of break, if working the same shift length?

For example: we have office staff (including managers), VMU techs, warehouse staff and factory operatives all doing 12 hour shifts, to which the company gives them an entitlement of three 30 mins break, which is well above the WTD legal allowance.
I am a LGV driver, and I know our minimum breaks are governed by tachograph regulations, but I queried "are we legally allowed the same as the the other employees if we do a 12 hr shift?"

The reason I am asking, is that we recently had a meeting regarding theft of time by the driver group, primarily by having extended breaks etc...
I stated the surely it was discrimination by not allowing us the same rights as the other employees, and our equality in the workplace was also effected by classing us as a different entity.

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated...

Snowmonster

[Snowmonster]

Re: Break Entitlement...

Hi, does no-one have any idea on this subject? At a bit of a loss about were to look on the web extra for information about it...

[paulajayne]

Re: Break Entitlement...

Check you contract of employment to start with.

[ssparks2003]

Re: Break Entitlement...

Diffrent people in the same organisation can have diffrent contracts, work diffrent hours and have diffrent breaks. as long as you are reciving the legal entitlement and what is stated in your contract then it is perfectly ok.

[Johnboy007]

Re: Break Entitlement...

The employer only has to give you breaks that are legaly allowed for in regulations.
His obligations end there.
Any discrepancy in this, would have to be by agreement with the employee.
Usually written into your terms of employment.
As a driver, can you say that your equality in the workplace was effected by classing you as a different entity.
I would say you are a different entity, in that you do not work as such, in the workplace.
Your rules of work are governed by other legal entities.
So would the other workers be just as right, if they used your conditions as an example, to alter their own conditions.
You see my friend, it just wouldn't work.
Either you would get extra breaks, or others would lose their extra breaks.
If you want extra breaks, ask for a transfer into the factory.

[leclerc]

Re: Break Entitlement...

If you are a lorry driver it is irrelevant what someone in an office does as they are not covered by the same rules as if they were driving a lorry. I've kinda googled information to try to give an accurate answer and the best I can come up with is one from tachodata website, which I hope will prove useful: http://www.tachodata.com/detailed.htm

[Amethyst]

Re: Break Entitlement...

I think we need to know a bit more about your shift patterns, if you are doing a 12 hour shift, when does it end, and start again ? I'm pretty sure you would have over an hour and a half breaks during a 12 hours driving shift following taco rules? I'll ask Tools later, LGV and HGV could be entirely different.

[Tools]

Re: Break Entitlement...

@ Amethyst- LGV & HGV are the same, if the vehicle is over 3500kg Gross vehicle weight, tachograph regs apply

A driver under tachograph rules must take at least 45 minutes break for every 4˝ hours of driving, "other work" (loading/unloading etc) may be carried out in between for example;

Driving 2.5 hours
Other work 1 hour
Driving 2 hours ( total driving 4˝)
Break 45 minutes

This can be taken as a full 45 minutes or split into 15 minutes + 30 minutes (important to know that the 30 minute break must come second in the pattern, not 30 then 15, this would be illegal)

The maximum driving time is 9 hours per day, this however can be increased to 10 hours twice per week.

Your maximum weekly driving time is 56 hours ( The week is classed as 00:00hrs Monday to 24:00 Sunday)

There is also a maximum of 90 hours over a consecutive 2 week period.

There are also regs around rest periods between shifts, but I don't think you were needing to know about those at this point.

If driving for 9 hours or over per day then you would legally have to take a total of 1˝ hours break anyway. So unless you are driving for less than that your breaks should be equal in total to that of the other workers.