advice needed about employers obligations

[Pacific]

If you recognise me please do not out me.

If your employer transports you to another town to work and you are taken ill at work and cannot get the work transport back home, would the employer be obliged to provide alternative transport back to your home or base?

I cannot provide any details but I would appreciate any advice on this situation.

not sure what you mean? but in the main it is your responsibility to get to work and back, not your employers, so even if they do happen to provide transport unless they list this as a condition/perk of your employment on your contract, I don't think they are responsible.

Your employer isn't legally obliged to provide you with transport at all, so it's a benefit you are receiving and subject to whatever terms and conditions are set on it. If your contract or policies don't set out what happens in the event of illness then your employer isn't obliged to pay for a taxi which I presume is what happened.

Presumably this benefit is written down somewhere in a contract or handbook or policy? Can you give us the exact wording?

Sorry didn't make the situation clear.

Employees report to a central base. The working day starts at the time the employees report to the base. Then they are transported in a company vehicle to the town they will be working in for that day, then they are transported back to the base at the end of the day.

If an employee falls ill and cannot take the company transport back to base, can the employer 'abandon' them in the other town?

Still need the wording I'm afraid. In the contract or a policy or something somewhere there should be something written about transport arrangements and from that we should be able to tell whether the employer is obliged to transport employees who do not work their full day.

Hi Flowery. Nothing written down as far as I am aware. What department would keep that sort of info? HR?

I would be surprised if transport arrangements like this weren't in writing in an employment contract or letter or similar - is it really something people only know about verbally?

Otherwise yes HR would be where to ask for a copy of the handbook or policies.

Thanks flowery. It is a big local authority/government organisation so I suppose the assumption is that contracts and employment law is all above board. It takes an incident to happen before the details are sorted out.

I wondered if there was a generic 'law' that says employers have to take you back to where you started.

I can't say much more in case I am identified.
Thank you for your help.

No generic law no. If it's public sector I would be astonished if it's not all written down somewhere.

Thanks flowery. I'm sure it will be written somewhere but I have no idea where to start looking or even how to access this info without arousing suspicions. The area concerned has a horrible 'blame' culture and people are very frightened of rocking the boat.

Thanks for your help anyway.