Take 20 mins before you go out DIM says

[Exrep]

Right chaps my apologies if this post has already gone up previously ,ive had a quick scan through and can not find anything .

Our DIM is forcing us to take 20 mins meal relief before commencing our humongous beats. Go over and he will only pay you 20 mins of meal relief instead of 40.

Yes I know I can hear everyone saying ! Take it before you go out ! Why are you not already taking it, and I fully understand all that voice that opinion. So lets get straight into the real world and stop looking at this through rose tinted spectacles.

The reasons being from one failed revision straight into another ,not enough indoor hours beats being well over 5 hours. An average shared van duty in our office have 8 loops each and we cover an area of about 12 miles.

So to my question as according to GOV.UK he can not by law SPLIT your break or put it relatively close to the beginning of your duty (3 hours) .Due to his narcissism he saying the government are wrong hes right with a report me attitude. Also im being told the CWU are behind royal mail in this can someone set me straight on this issue.

Give me the time and i will have my break,but that aint going to happen . Yes I clear so I book simples but it looks like rulings are heading my way and in 20 years service have never taken a ruling .

Thanks lads info on this will be greatly received

[2pints]

Where an attendance is provided with more than one break, the second break may be scheduled at the beginning or end, in which case attendance is not required solely for booking on or off. A single break should not be scheduled at the beginning or end of the attendance.

He cannot,by law,take half your break away or make you take it at start of shift.He is just talking crap.If you have no rep then call or email your area rep.If you do not have time to complete your duty after taking your relief then follow the standard cutting off procedure and it is then the managers responsibility what happens to the mail/parcels that are left.Do not be bullied into anything stand your ground and follow the procedures to the letter and just keep calm.You will be untouchable.If manager gives you any grief simply raise a grievance against him and watch him change his ways.

[Surreypostie]

If you mean have 20 mins break before you leave the office once you are ready to go then yes, you are not supposed to have all your break at the end of your duty. Ideally your break should be somewhere near the middle. If it is your local agreement to split your break, 20 / 20 then what is the problem? You are paid to take a 40 minute break, take it. If you cannot complete then you book the extra if you want too. I can see a point in time where RM will stop paying us for our breaks. They don't have to pay us for breaks. You will still be breaking the law if you don't take your break. I know many people who work outside of RM that would love to be paid for their breaks. At the moment you do a 39 hour week and included in that is time where you are paid to sit on your arse and do nothing. If RM were to remove paid breaks you would do 39 hours work and still be required to take a break. I like your manager, he is trying to make people take breaks they are entitled to, I wish our managers would enforce it, they won't as it gives them more scope for lapsing. If you do not take your breaks it affects the office efficiency figures also, meaning they can make your beats as you call them even bigger. Wise up, take your breaks.

[motherhubbard]

So to my question as according to GOV.UK he can not by law SPLIT your break or put it relatively close to the beginning of your duty (3 hours) .Due to his narcissism he saying the government are wrong hes right with a report me attitude. Also im being told the CWU are behind royal mail in this can someone set me straight on this issue.

Thanks lads and lasses info on this will be greatly received

The information provided by GOV.UK refers only to the legal requirement to allow a 20 minute break.
As we have more than the legal requirement (40 minutes for f/t) then the break can be split and in many offices up and down the land this is exactly what happens.

The law also speaks about the break being roughly in the middle which doesn't mean exactly in the middle.

So yes your DOM is right and the CWU are right to be behind him.

[hellpop]

we have been doing this at our office since january.we dont particularly like it but the union have said it is correct and there is no getting away from it.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

his insistence that you take a 20 minute break before you go out and a 20 minute break at the end is both legal and within the agreements.



https://www.gov.uk/rest-breaks-work/overview" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2. Taking breaks
Employers can say when employees take rest breaks during work time as long as:

the break is taken in one go somewhere in the middle of the day (not at the beginning or end)
workers are allowed to spend it away from their desk or workstation (ie away from where they actually work)
It doesn’t count as a rest break if an employer says an employee should go back to work before their break is finished.

Unless a worker’s employment contract says so, they don’t have the right to:

take smoking breaks
get paid for rest breaks

[Exrep]

Thanks for the info chaps ,this job has officially gone to the dogs how can the union back something that has an impact on your delivery.

Cheers boys

[cyrus]

Thanks for the info chaps ,this job has officially gone to the dogs how can the union back something that has an impact on your delivery.

Cheers boys

I find taking 20 mins before I go out, calms me, gives me a mental break before starting my duty. Which helps prevent stress .I don't get this "batter round I don't need a brake"talk.I live in the real world and when the duty will take me over 5 hours. I still take my brake before going out even at Christmas.I either cut off or do the over time.

[Spedley]

I think the answer is yes, he can make you take 20mins before you go out and the driving rules don't normally apply to us (unless you do more than 5 hours or so).
He can't stop you taking the other 20 mins away from the office or at the end of your shift - the only way I get to collect my kids in time.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

Thanks for the info chaps ,this job has officially gone to the dogs how can the union back something that has an impact on your delivery.

Cheers boys

They are backing it as it's the correct thing to do and it doesn't affect your delivery if you are doing your job properly. The rules regarding breaks are there to protect your health and safety why on earth would the union take any position other than to back such rules.

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

You will still be breaking the law if you don't take your break

Actually that statement is incorrect. Your not breaking any law at all by not taking a break, the law is that the employer must give you a break under the working time regulations and if they don't then the employer is breaking the law(exception to this being profession drivers with drivers hours regulations etc but this doesn't apply to standard posties)

[IcanthelpthewayIam]

He cannot,by law,take half your break away or make you take it at start of shift.He is just talking crap.

So the op has stated he is getting his 20 minute statutory break as described under the working time regulation, you have said by law that the dom cannot take the second 20 min break away from him or be made to take it at start of shift, I am not saying it should or should not be taken away that's a completely different discussion but exactly what what law is actually being broken? Given that there is no legal right to a break in excess of 20 minutes in this case

[douggie68]

Oh what a terrible union we have trying to make us take the PAID breaks that previous members fought for us to get.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Oh what a terrible union we have trying to make us take the PAID breaks that previous members fought for us to get.

I know disgusting, they'll be forcing us to take leave soon and perhaps even a pay rise at some point

[2pints]

He cannot,by law,take half your break away or make you take it at start of shift.He is just talking crap.

So the op has stated he is getting his 20 minute statutory break as described under the working time regulation, you have said by law that the dom cannot take the second 20 min break away from him or be made to take it at start of shift, I am not saying it should or should not be taken away that's a completely different discussion but exactly what what law is actually being broken? Given that there is no legal right to a break in excess of 20 minutes in this case

I completely misunderstood the op i thought the manager was trying to take his break away.