Your rights: Time to form delegation

Q.

I am contracted by my local community trust as hired labour. I belong to a team of more than 20 workers for the trust.

I am concerned about the inadequacy of the trust's managerial procedures regarding workers' rights and issues such as travelling to and from work via company vans (just under 100km three times a week), wages, employee and employer behaviours and grievances, accident cover for travel or sickness, vehicle maintenance, van drivers. There are no procedures set up to address concerns over any of these matters.

Work is paid at the minimum rate and no one wants to cause a fuss over any issues. But because I thought things just weren't right, I approached the boss with positive claims of concern, only to later learn that my concerns were considered hearsay and would not be acted upon.

I am not happy with my boss' conduct in handling the situation. Communication has been very slack.

What advice do you have on how I should handle this? Are there any legal issues involved?

A.

Your employment agreement should cover some of the matters you mention. For example, it should have a clause relating to payment of wages or salary and a clause explaining the services available to you for the resolution of employment relationship problems.

You can ask to see a copy of your employment agreement. If you do not have one, you can ask your boss to provide you with one.

Your employer should also have some policies relating to the issues you mention - in particular, policies relating to health and safety issues (which might include vehicle maintenance), vehicle use and driving. You can also ask to see these policies.

Attempting to discuss these issues with your boss was a good idea. If, as it seems, your immediate boss is not prepared to hear you out, you should try to talk to the person who deals with employee relations issues for the trust or someone more senior than your immediate boss. Then put your concerns in writing - with concrete examples of when these problems have occurred.

Because these issues appear to affect the group, you may also like to think about forming a delegation of say, three people (including yourself) and approach the boss together.

If the wages issue includes non-payment of wages or any other breach of the minimum code, you could contact a labour inspector to assist you to recover this pay. Similarly, if the issues relating to driving and vehicle maintenance could amount to concerns about employees' health and safety concerns, you could approach an OSH inspector.

You mention that there are grievances. You have the right to pursue your own grievance against the trust if you have one. You can only pursue fellow employees' grievances if they authorise you to do so on their behalf.

If you have a collective agreement, your union may be able to offer some support. The Employment Relations Service (ERS) Infoline (0800 800 863) may also be able to provide advice. The Infoline will put you in touch with people such as labour inspectors and OSH inspectors. You are entitled to raise any concerns you have about matters affecting your employment. Simply raising these does not give your employer grounds for taking any disciplinary action against you.

Employment Relations Service

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