|
Summer holidays
Do a lot of underground operations staff go on holiday during the
summer, with station manning requirements reduced to allow this, or are they required to spread their holidays out evenly through the year? |
Summer holidays
I'm not sure that summer makes that much difference. Whilst there are less
workers, there are more tourists about and there are also more children (on school holidays) travelling around, although perhaps not as many to make up for the drop in workers. A brief leave explanation, as the standard always gets it wrong! Drivers have eight weeks off a year allocated to them. When there are strikes etc. in the offing, LU like to quote this as "8 weeks holidays" to try to make it look good. In fact, this is made up of normal holidays, days off in lieu of working bank holidays, Banked Rest Days (drivers are paid for a 35 hour week, but work 36 hours, the additional hour per week works out at 6 BRDs a year), and any odd days they might be owed for any reason. The actual amount of time due may vary slightly either way and is adjusted locally. Because of the large amount of drivers at a depot, this eight weeks is spread over four two week periods (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter), and is spread out over a rota basis over 48 weeks with drivers rostered to cover the periods of leave as part of their rostered duties. The odd four weeks left of the year is used to cover any drivers outstanding odd days, leave previously owed etc. I don't know about the station side, but from what I've understood in the past, there is more flexibility in when station staff take their leave because there is not enough of them in a group to take up a whole year between them. Station staff get the same leave entitlement as drivers, but may work more unpaid hours and thus get more BRDs. I'm not sure if station staff leave is allocated to specific rostered leave periods when staff must take their leave, or if staff generally just apply in advance for time off, like managers do. Obviously when leave is taken would be restricted to when cover is available, but I assume that, like most people, more staff would like to take some of their leave in the summer when the schools are on holiday and the weather is (possibly!) better than the winter. So, the answer is, maybe! A bit of a lengthy answer, but staff leave etc. is something that is often misquoted in the press etc. Roger *From:* Basil Jet *Date:* Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:21:47 +0100 Do a lot of underground operations staff go on holiday during the summer, with station manning requirements reduced to allow this, or are they required to spread their holidays out evenly through the year? |
Summer holidays
|
Summer holidays
|
Summer holidays
*From:* Roland Perry
*Date:* Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:08:34 +0100 In message , at 06:17:31 on Fri, 22 Jul 2011, remarked: Because of the large amount of drivers at a depot, this eight weeks is spread over four two week periods (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter), and is spread out over a rota basis over 48 weeks with drivers rostered to cover the periods of leave as part of their rostered duties. The odd four weeks left of the year is used to cover any drivers outstanding odd days, leave previously owed etc. I don't know about the station side, but from what I've understood in the past, there is more flexibility in when station staff take their leave because there is not enough of them in a group to take up a whole year between them. How flexible are the employers when staff want to take unexpected leave. Not just funerals, but perhaps having to wait in for a delivery or repair man, when the day that's scheduled is at short notice? -- Roland Perry Again, a long post to try and give some background. The short answer is that on the train side, there's virtually no flexibility, and that's not the fault of the (local) managers. Over the years, the amount of pool drivers at depots has been cut. Pool drivers are literally a pool of a few drivers at a depot who are over and above the roster and they would normally be used to cover such things as known sickness, some additional training for existing drivers (the annual training refresher that drivers get is built in to the roster, so that isn't a problem), Drivers that are being released so they can train others, and all sorts of other reasons. There are also Spare duties built into the roster. An example of this is at one depot, there are 135 duties booking on on a week day. Of these, 22 are spare duties and 113 are running (driving duties). The idea of spare duties is to avoid trains being cancelled. 22 spares might seem a lot, but they can be used for all sorts of things, including: Changing over a defective train so that the driver bringing in the defective train has a good one to take back and the train isn't cancelled on the next trip, Taking a train that may otherwise be cancelled because the service is running late and the relieving driver may still be on their train somewhere else. Relieving a driver in various circumstances such as when the driver has a SPAD, a one-under, is assaulted, has an accident on duty, or the driver becomes ill on the train. Relieving a driver that needs to be interviewed for whatever reason, or for a disciplinary interview (aka Bollocking!) etc. Starting off a duty where the driver hasn't booked on yet (is late) Doing part (or all) of a duty where the driver is known to be not booking on, either from a phone call that has been received that day or the driver is known to be sick. The list is really endless. A driver can be driving their train within 7 minutes of booking on. If the driver hasn't turned up in time, then a spare driver has to be put on the train. Because of the low number of pool drivers, there may be known uncovered duties that pool drivers would normally cover. These will be shown as no driver on the daily booking-on sheet and as that is using a spare up straight away. There can be times when, for whatever reason, there are several uncovered duties on the sheet. Straight away, the depot manager knows that he's "in the shift for coverage" that day! As a consequence of everything being so tight, a driver requesting time out "or special leave" as it's known) may be refused. This is the same for whether the special leave is at the beginning or end of the duty, or for a day or more. If it's for a day in advance and cover is available, it might be possible for that person to arrange to take a day or more of their leave at that time. In which case, that time off would be shown as leave and he would be paid as normal and it wouldn't go against them. This is normally the case if more than the allowed time off for funerals is required. One of the few exceptions for not granting special leave would be a funeral. A driver phoning in to say that they have to wait in because somebody is late turing up, a plumber etc. is late finishing, they have to pick up their children from school etc. will normally be given short shrift and told to "be in on time or you'll be booked" because if they're not in on time, it may be that their train (or another train later because a spare is already being used) is cancelled. Of course, it might be that the driver who is not granted the time off takes it off anyway. Either way the train driving still has to be covered. It may be that a genuine driver (as opposed to the known ****-takers) will be "let off" by the manager when they eventually book on if no trains have been cancelled as a consequence, but it doesn't happen very often. These days, all items of sickness and absence for whatever reason and lateness (especially when a train is cancelled) are booked as items against that person. When being disciplined, the list of items is brought up and looked at. Some items, such as a funeral (a copy of the death certificate may be requested) may not be counted. Occasionally a sickness may not be counted, but most are, even with a doctors certificate. There is no guarantee that a hospital stay (with hospital certificate) would not be counted. Even if some items are discounted, there is always the holistic report where discounted items could be looked at and, if there was a pattern, a driver could still face a review and possibly disciplinary action. There are very strict limits as to how many items you can have within a certain short timescale, and it is very easy to get on the slippery slope to a potential sacking I assume the same process applies to the station side, however there is the potential for there to be a bit more flexibility for being late as no trains are cancelled. As long as the station doesn't have to close, either because there will still be more than the minimum number of staff, or because another member of staff in the same grade is willing to do overtime until the person comes in. It doesn't mean that any items won't get counted, though. Roger |
Summer holidays
|
Summer holidays
"Roland Perry" wrote in message ... In message , at 09:02:41 on Fri, 22 Jul 2011, remarked: One of the few exceptions for not granting special leave would be a funeral. A driver phoning in to say that they have to wait in because somebody is late turing up, a plumber etc. is late finishing, they have to pick up their children from school etc. will normally be given short shrift and told to "be in on time or you'll be booked" All very interesting stuff. Thanks. Must be quite a problem for drivers to see a GP if it's one of those surgeries where you can't get an appointment (even for non-urgent things) until you try calling the reception at 8am the same day. So they go to the doctors on a day when they are on lates. I was talking to someone a week or two ago about an employee who got into trouble because he took a day off at short notice to move house (one of those occasions where they didn't know the completion date until the last minute). The simple solution to this is to NOT get yourself into that position. If your work commitments are such that you have to have a completion on a particular set of dates then you "offer" on that basis. In the worst case, why does someone actually need to be present when a removals firm is moving you? |
Summer holidays
In message , at 18:09:34 on Fri, 22 Jul
2011, tim.... remarked: All very interesting stuff. Thanks. Must be quite a problem for drivers to see a GP if it's one of those surgeries where you can't get an appointment (even for non-urgent things) until you try calling the reception at 8am the same day. So they go to the doctors on a day when they are on lates. It may not be possible to wait until a day when they are both "on lates", and calling at 8am manages to get you an appointment. I was talking to someone a week or two ago about an employee who got into trouble because he took a day off at short notice to move house (one of those occasions where they didn't know the completion date until the last minute). The simple solution to this is to NOT get yourself into that position. Very easy to say, but I'm sure there are people whose jobs are even less flexible. If your work commitments are such that you have to have a completion on a particular set of dates then you "offer" on that basis. In the worst case, why does someone actually need to be present when a removals firm is moving you? Yes, you do. There's more involved than just shifting a bit of furniture. -- Roland Perry |
Summer holidays
In message , at 18:04:41 on Fri, 22 Jul
2011, tim.... remarked: How flexible are the employers when staff want to take unexpected leave. Not just funerals, but perhaps having to wait in for a delivery or repair man, when the day that's scheduled is at short notice? The funeral is obviously something that they can't control, but assuming that staff often get their "normal" days off during the week expecting not to arrange deliveries/doctors appointments etc on those days is dammed unreasonable. Thanks for you opinion, which is useful because I'm trying to collect a range of views (and not just from here). -- Roland Perry |
| All times are GMT. The time now is 04:34 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2006 LondonBanter.co.uk