It's a work one

[leopardprintandzebras]

This is a mixture of are we being unreasonable and hr question.

Basically (I've name changed as this can be linked to a few of my other threads) I work in the care sector. Domiciliary care.

We have to log in and out of calls using one of those scan things qr code of something. We work every day of the year. All through pandemic etc.

During the pandemic we didn't have to sign in and out. Recently we have had a lot of staff leave like 15-20%. It's caused us to be very busy and our calls are back to back with 5 minutes travel time even if the journey normally takes 15!

We finish at 10 pm. When it's late and we have to people to bed they don't want us hanging around in the house (perfectly understandable) so we don't log out and it lets us play catch up a bit on time. If we didn't do this I think we would be home about 10:45-11 and we don't get paid travel. We are paid by the minute.

Anyway the manager has now said if we don't log out we will only be paid 15 mins of the call.

Can they legally do this? Only about 10% of our clients are private rest is adult social care. They will still charge the client for the entire call.
There has obviously been uproar within the staff and we have said give us more travel but they can't at the moment as we don't have enough staff to care for all clients.

Please can anyone advise on this??

Do you think wabu?

What happens if you don’t ‘log out’, but you leave and then something happens to the client? I understand wanting to claw back time / money in crappy employment arrangements, but I think potentially you are leaving yourselves vulnerable to accusations of negligence if a client falls etc while the paperwork says your there, but in reality you’re not. While I’m sure there is a money-grabbing element to your employer’s new rules, I do wonder if it is also designed to discourage staff from falsifying records.

Sadly this is an industry where exploitation of staff, and an utter lack of appreciation, seems to be rife. I’m not sure what the answer is, I suppose your options are either to put up, change to a different career, or try to fight to change the whole industry. It is disgraceful that care staff are subjected to contracts like this.

I think care staff are treated appallingly by all sectors.
The issue here is that your employer is not giving you sufficient travel time and they always do this as a way to make more profit.
Is there any scope for you to take on private work yourself as self employed ir if not I would move to somewhere with a shift pattern e g nursing home, set start and finish times

As a temporary work around... Can you leave the client, start driving home, then at the time you should be leaving, pull over and clock out?

P.S. you do a really important job - even if your employer doesn't value you, I certainly do, thank you (I realise that doesn't pay the bills though)

If you're in a union speak to them, or acas.
If you don't get travel time, im assuming you don't have time for breaks? What are your shift patterns like?

Just leave. They sound terrible. Failing that, take a picture of the QR code on a tablet or some other device, then just scan the picture later when you're home at the max time.

They screw you, you screw them. Seems fair to me.

Union now. You are most likely earning under NMW which is illegal. I speak from experience.

Nobody seems to be considering the clients' perspective. They are paying for an hour and getting significantly less. If the job takes 45 minutes you should be logging that and they should be paying for 45 minutes. You can't use 'their' time to make your employer effectively pay your travelling time, which is what you are doing at the moment. If you want to be paid for travelling time then ask your employer. You sound like you're in a strong position to negotiate a better contract.

Can I offer my opinion from the business point of view .

The LA manage these systems and if you don't log in and log out it appears that work hasn't been done and your company is not going to be paid for that time .

It's a shit system and it isn't working but no one is listening , the LA is reaping the rewards as they are not paying their invoices but the care companies still need to pay the staff as they know it's been done but it is showing on the system that it is not .

I expect the threat of only paying for 15 mins is because your company need you to do what is asked of you and scan in and out correctly . It's out of their hands.

This does not take away from the fact who does does your Rota's are not very good at it , travel time need to be reflective of reality . That's a complaint you need to take higher .

Alternatively, leave , experience Dom carers can walk out of one company into any other without issue especially if your DBS is on the update system . But just be aware that most LA's will now have version of this scan in system so it might be the same again . It saves them LOTS of money !

Care companies are being screwed over quietly and no one gives a toss

Thank you

Few answer to questions:

We would never leave the client if the call isn't finished. We can go over but again not paid for it. We only ever leave once the client is in bed and everything is done. Please remember some of our client are literally medication only which takes 5 minutes. Some won't talk to you or want anything else.

We have argued the no travel but we are told there's nothing they can do for now

The client ALWAYS gets charged full even if we clock out at 45.