Another parking one....

[parkingchaos]

Following on from the other thread, I am in a similar situation.

I work within a child protection team. We were based in the suburbs with plenty of on-site free parking yet have been moved to a city centre office.

There are on-site car parks but our dept have not been allocated any permits.

We are essential car users and can easily travel in excess of 500 miles/month.

They have also scrapped our £1000/yr essential car user. We get the minimum amount for mileage.

It is not as easy to say pay for a permit at a local car park - they are all full. There are a variety of daily car parks in the area and limited street parking but unless you are able to arrive before 8am you will struggle to get a space. Several of us start slightly later, to enable us to do the school run etc, so we can then be driving around for up to an hour looking for anywhere to park within a 20 minute or so radius.

I know people will say park further afield, use public transport but it is not feasible. We are in and out of the office several times per day; attending meetings, doing home visits, accomodating children etc.

We transport children in our cars and also carry laptops - the department got rid of the computers and we have gone paperless, so our laptops go everywhere.

To make it worse, where the office is located is renowned for muggings etc and cars are always being broken into.

Most of us have also had parking tickets/been clamped/been towed, due to meetings over-running and being slightly late in moving the cars.

I have considered refusing to use my car for work - I would have the same caseload though and the job would be impossible.

Any ideas?

TIA

that's awful? could you ask your union?

Hi germyrabbit, the unions have been involved.

The council basically ripped up our contacts and issued us with new ones - the unions could not stop it.

Other teams were moved to other offices and they continue to have free on-site parking.

Are there any pool cars you could use?

Hi rackandruin - No, if only.

Threaten to bill them to take taxis on all your essential journeys unless they reinstate your parking permit?
Ask to move to another office?
Call a team meeting with your boss to go through your car use and why it is no longer deemed essential.

Hi, inmysparetime - Ive asked to move to a different office, they will not allow it.

We've raised it as a team and some of us have raised grievances.

The managers are not interested - they are in the office all day so it doesn't really affect them, some of them travel to and from work by public transport now.

They said they will pay for a bus pass but we will still struggle to manage due to the distance we cover and number of meetings/visits we have to fit into each day.

When we have out of county visits they will pay for trains/taxis etc or if its a great distance then a hire car. This doesn't really solve the problem of parking to get into the office, carry the laptops, transporting children. Also, from a safety point of view, if ive just done a home visit, where I have faced considerable hostility, I dont want to hang around outside at the bus stop!

If i don't take my car to work then I will struggle with my existing childcare arrangements that have worked perfectly fine for years - same as the other op.

I will not put them in extra childcare of a morning as i work late very frequently and do not see them enough as it is. Plus this will cost yet more money when we have already had a 3 year pay freeze, lost our parking and lost our car allowance.

I will check back tonight. Thanks all.

You need to go over your direct managers' heads and approach their managers about your situation.
Write an official complaint letter from all those with a grievance.
State clearly all your contractual duties and how these make your car essential.
Put only facts, not statements like "don't want to be hanging round the bus stop outside" or "spend little enough time with my kids", these are not pertinent to your grievance and can detract from your real concerns.
Re. The bus stop, you could state it as a concern about personal safety and the need to leave some situations quickly.
Your childcare issues are only relevant if you have made a request for flexible working as a parent.
Perhaps you could restructure your workload so you can do more work remotely via wifi or 3G rather than battle morning traffic. You might be able to argue for a tablet computer rather than a laptop as they are easier to carry in a backpack etc.
You could detail a typical day with the car, then the same day (roughly) without, comparing the two in terms of the practicality of meeting your caseload obligations without the car.

Hi inmysparetime - yes, some of us have had flexible work requests approved to enable a later start time.

We have asked for tablets but the budget is being slashed.

Management informed us we could work from home and our home would be classsed as our base. We therefore individually paid to have high speed internet access (the LA would not pay) and now they have suddenly said we cannot do this anymore, only on pre-approved occasions for a good reason.

We can work from different offices but our admin and IT support is based in our office. It is also not a job that you wish to do in isolation and people also were unhappy about having to work from home.

If we travel in later in the day for admin/meetings etc we cannot get parking. Many of our visits are late in the day and we finish work miles away from home or the office. We also mostly work alone.

We have sat down and discussed with management the implications of this new arrangement and their managers are already involved. The unions could not prevent it either.

The nature of child protection work means that with the best will in the world, no matter how well you organise your time and structure your workload we have to drop everything at a moments notice to safeguard children.

Some people have tried to manage on public transport but have found it extremely difficult, very time consuming, stressful and tiring. This leads to absence from work and the people who are left have to cover.

How can it be fair that other teams have been moved to offices with ample parking but we are just being expected to get on with it?

Can you get management to make a case for you not needing cars, so you get clarification of the arguments you need to work against?
I.e. "you can get round on public transport"
"X used public transport when dealing with case Y, and it caused delays in safeguarding child Y, and X needed 3 sick days because of the stress"
"but you don't need to drive right to the office"
"we have a varied caseload spread over a large area, need to transport laptops (as you won't approve tablet computers) and vulnerable children, need a communal base to discuss cases at the start of each day"

Is having a car part of your job spec?

When I worked in SS some of our staff where in the same situaton and job as you. Some of them had on their contract that they HAD to have their own car and had the same problems but the agency staff didn't have that specified. As a result they didn't use their cars. ( I know two people who lived out of town who claimed they couldn't drive and didn't have a car and that was a big fat lie) As a consequency they just billed SS for their taxis and bus fares.

Is it worth saying your car has broken down/ in the garage for a week and see what happens?

Hi - just checked job spec -no mention of car.

I know management have been saying for ages that they would ensure if it was part of the job spec so don't know if this has been updated yet.

We all had to apply and have been approved as Essential Car Users - only now they have scrapped the allowance. We can only claim mileage.

They will pay for a taxi if we are removing/accomodating a child. This is poor practice though as the child is often distraught, famiies are upset - they don't need a taxi driver in the mix too.

The problem with management is that we have constant new ones - no one sticks around. What they do do, is go on the internet and say that journey is so and so miles and should only take so long etc - they dont add on time for traffic on the motorway etc or if you use the bus, they dont allow waiting time, time to change buses etc. Everything seems clear cut to them when its not.

Worth another try though, regarding clarification of arguments and impact of delays.

If I was to use public transport to drop/collect my children this would add a couple of hours onto my/their day and my existing childcare would not work. I haven't changed jobs - they have moved the goalposts. It is so frustrating.

Are you looking round for other jobs, it might be worth looking for a transfer if the situation has no solution. You may even have a case for constructive dismissal if their changing requirements make your position untenable.

If the management is so insistent that the job is doable by public transport, invite them to shadow you for a day
Perhaps that will open their eyes to the reality of their ill thought out policies.

Can you get into the site car park without a permit? If so, just park there-can you evidence non essential car users having permits?

I'm in a similar job and our county is doing the same thing. It's about reducing property costs. Hot desking/no parking/home working.

Hot desking/homeworking lose you the team support which is v important in SW. Parking will be a major issue regarding security/staff safety and time will be wasted looking for parking/to & fro-Ing moving spaces etc.

I've no idea on your problem but am very interested in the solution.

We used to have 'use of a car' on our job spec but haven't got a current one so think its probably gone.

Hi again, we've invited management but for some reason they dont want to join us!!

The permit opens the barriers so can't sneak in.

The on-site car park is always half empty - we have raised this time and time again but we still can't have permits yet we are essential car users - it's madness.

The problem is half the staff are so scared of management that they refuse to raise a grievance. The ones of us that do are treated with contempt or ignored by management.

We also hot desk and this is a problem. There is never another desks so when we sit outside our team area we quite often get told to move on. This means time to log onto the computer again etc, our laptops take ages to reboot - everything is time consuming.

Whats annoying is that the other SW teams are based in offices with teams of people who aren't essential car users and who remain in the office 9-5. They could easily have allocated them our building and we move with the rest of the SW's. Apparently, it's not that simple.

Also, when we are driving round for an hour each morning looking for a space we are then classed as late for work and need to make up the time!!

Lunchtime often consists of a run (quite a distance) down to the carpark to top up the meter or to re-park as no return within an hour if parked on the road .

Some of us have repeatedly asked for transfers within the LA but they wont let us as we are always short staffed.

I dread to ask with public sector, but is there any point speaking to HR? A letter to someone really senior? In the meantime, I would raise hell with your union - this is exactly what they are there for and they need to step up. A letter to national office with all your signature.

HR are unhelpful. Had no joy with the unions either. The standard managerial response is if you don't like something- leave. We have loads of agency staff due to poor staff retention. We are considering a collective grievance but are unsure if we can do this when we all belong to various unions???

parkingchaow this is a terrible situation you are in.

Is your team all united on this matter?

Would you consider a joint action - where you all agree not to use your cars for (e.g.) 4 weeks and demonstrate to mgt how less efficient / effective you are?

Have you thought about contacting the press?

The management team sound like absolute bastards.

I'd be really tempted to take up their offer of a bus pass, taxis, etc. Stop using the car. If it means you can't work as effectively, get to all your meetings, see your caseloads or carry children about then that is not your problem.

Work to rule, do what you can.

At the moment its not inconveniencing them so they have no incentive to sort it. The moment it starts been a problem for them they're more likely to do something.

I'd play it all by the book. Request meetings with managers in the right order of seniority and timeframe. If they cannot meet you, then go a level up, but document that the request for a meeting to discuss the issue was refused. Keep going until you reach someone with clout or at least the decency to explain how they expect you to do the job without a space or permit.

You will need to have done something like this to lodge a grievance, I expect, and do make sure you keep a good record of what you have been told when.

If you still don't get anywhere and others don't want to go down the grievance route, try writing to the very top formally voicing your concerns about your ability to meet your statutory duty to protect children following the changes made.

Hi- the problem is all the staff moan but when it comes down to action most of them wont do anything. There is a handful of us that have raised grievances and whilst we would be prepared to stick together, all refuse to use our cars etc, we are outnumbered. The others want us to fight the battles and they will share in any rewards. Lots of the staff are agency and dont care- they stay a few weeks and move on.

A couple of us asked our unions about going public- we were informed this would be slander!

The problem in this work is that by 'working to rule' would put people/yourselves at risk, unfortunately that seems to be what it takes sometimes.

Oh & we put in a collective grevience ( different matter) and we had people in different unions.

Oh- we have also been told if we cant manage our caseloads we will be performance managed. I will write to the top and explain the situation. Complaints/grievances tend to be ignored or minimised. It would be much easier if the whole team would argue the case together.