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John Dumigan
Member - 2 posts
Down District Council employs HGV Drivers to drive their refuse vehicles. When drivers are on leave, sick or on training etc we have a number of ?relief? drivers who are employed for the purposes of emptying bins but who have acquired a HGV licence. For various reasons, mostly related to the high levels of sickness and staffing problems, some of the relief drivers have been continuously carrying out driving duties for more than a year.
These drivers are now claiming that, by default, they now have a contract with us a driver. They have demanded that they be made permanent drivers. We have already made one relief driver a permanent driver but have been advised that we should not make the other relief drivers permanent.
Our advice has been that to do so would fall foul of the equality legislation related to employment, ie we didn?t go through the normal recruitment process where posts have to be advertised and open to all sections of the community (our existing drivers are mainly from one religious denomination).
I feel that the relief drivers are in a position to claim contractual rights as drivers. Would you agree or does the equality legislation take precedence?
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John Dumigan
Member - 2 posts
Down District Council employs HGV Drivers to drive their refuse vehicles. When drivers are on leave, sick or on training etc we have a number of ?relief? drivers who are employed for the purposes of emptying bins but who have acquired a HGV licence. For various reasons, mostly related to the high levels of sickness and staffing problems, some of the relief drivers have been continuously carrying out driving duties for more than a year.
These drivers are now claiming that, by default, they now have a contract with us a driver. They have demanded that they be made permanent drivers. We have already made one relief driver a permanent driver but have been advised that we should not make the other relief drivers permanent.
Our advice has been that to do so would fall foul of the equality legislation related to employment, ie we didn?t go through the normal recruitment process where posts have to be advertised and open to all sections of the community (our existing drivers are mainly from one religious denomination).
I feel that the relief drivers are in a position to claim contractual rights as drivers. Would you agree or does the equality legislation take precedence
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