Road transport

18 N EW draft regulations for road transport workers fail to give the protection that the directive claims to provide and could lead to longer working hours and loss of holiday entitlement. The government’s new draft regulations and guidance will implement into UK law the EC Road Transport Directive designed to improve health and safety at work for mobile workers. However, the government’s peculiar interpretation of the directive will allow employers to discount what should be regarded as working time and will help perpetuate the low-pay, long hours culture in road transport. RMT outlined its objections in a submission to the government’s consul- tation exercise prior to the regulations being introduced into UK law next March. Who is covered?: Regulations will apply to mobile workers who are covered by the EU Drivers’ Hours Rules which cover vehicles fitted with a tachograph, ie goods vehicles over 3.5 tons, coaches and long distance inter-urban buses. These regulations do not apply to stage carriage drivers. The March 23 deadline for implementation means that changes will need to be made quickly in order to avoid confusion and conflict. The regulations provide that drivers work no more than an average 48 hour week over a four month reference period. There is no individual opt-out. Work no more than 60 hours work in any single week provided the average 48 hour week is not exceeded in each reference period. There is also a limit of 10 hours in any 24 hour period if working at night.The 10 hour limit can be extended by collective agreement. Periods of Availability (PoA): The definition of what constitutes a PoA will lead to confusion and cause industrial relations problems as employers are encouraged to count all delays as a PoA thereby rendering the concept meaningless. RMT argues that all time spent at distri- bution centre and depots waiting to load or unload should be considered to be working time. RMT is concerned that government is seeking to ‘gold-plate’ definitions set out in the EC Directive which refer to PoAs as including “periods during which the mobile worker is accompanying a vehicle being transferred by ferryboat or by train as well periods waiting at frontiers and those due to traffic prohibitions”. RMT will firmly oppose plans set out in the draft guidelines to count time spent by a worker remaining with the vehicle whilst waiting to load/unload for reasons of security and/or safety as a period of availability. Occasional drivers: The decision to exclude occasional drivers from the provisions was made extremely late in the process and is at variance with the terms of directive. It will not encourage employers to reduce the large number of agency and temporary workers throughout the industry. Annual leave: The draft regulations allows employers to offset, or build back into rotas, annual leave days which are over and above the 20-day statutory minimum and could be exploited by unscrupulous employers to pressurise workers to use their non-statutory leave to reduce average working hours. The regulations and guidance should be changed so that it is not possible for leave to be used in this way. Relevant Agreements: Experience has shown when it comes to Working Time Regulations employers bring pressure to bear on workers to opt out of protections offered. The draft regulations should make explicit that derogations on night time working and reference period length can not be exercised individually but have to be reached through collective or workplace agreement. Vehicle and Operator Service Authority (VOSA): The ‘light touch’ enforcement regime will be inadequate in ensuring that the provisions are fully implemented. VOSA should take a more proactive approach than envisaged in the draft guidelines and check working time records during investigations into serious incidents and accidents. Full coverage: The union is calling on the government to take steps to bring all mobile workers, occasional or permanent, in line with the provisions of the directive. Assistant general secretary Mick Cash said that next year’s pay and conditions negotiations will take place in the context of the changes that the new regulations will introduce. “One thing is clear, RMT will not allow employers who have a legal obligation under the regulations to reduce drivers’ hours to exploit loopholes in the legislation to cut the living standard of our members,” he said. G A full version of the submission is available on the RMT website Devil in the detail RMT has made a submission on the inadequacies of the government’s new draft rules for road transport workers