Labor Issue assistance required

[Wannabe]

G'day fellow Hubbers.

 

Anybody here that can tell me what the Labor Law says when you have no official office (yup, that's true, the company I work for has no official, physical office) to work from?

I have a small area in my house set up to do any required admin in, with a desk, laptop, printer, etc. Thus I deem this to be my office.

 

My question, when does my time of work officially starts? The time I start my laptop in the mornings (I put it in sleep mode at night) or when I start my car to go to a client / site to work, or when I arrive at the  client / site?

The same goes for when do my day end, is it when I leave a  client / site when I worked there the entire day, or when I stop my car at my house at night?

 

I'm trying to find this in the SA Labor Law guidelines, but can't seem to find it. 

 

Further question, what is the regulations regarding the use of your private vehicle to do this traveling between clients / sites?

I do get a "petrol allowance" where I can fill my vehicle up at one specific filling station, but nothing else. No assistance with the servicing of my vehicle, no compensation for the associated wear and tear to my car, etc.

This vehicle is only used for "work" purposes, as we have a newer vehicle that we use to do our private things with, in other words, it gets parked at home after hours.

I did have an allocated Company Vehicle to use for many years, but this has now been taken away and is allocated to someone else, but this was only suppose to be a temporary arrangement.

 

If something goes wrong with my car now, I must repair it myself, and in my own time. I recently took a day of leave to repair / replace my worn out brake discs and pads, and more wear and tear repair work will need to be done in the very near future.

 

Please guys, no silly and of topic comments please, this is serious, I fear my job is hanging on a very thin thread, through no fault of my own, and I need to get myself ready.

[bertusras]

What does your employment contract state regarding all of your above questions?

[Wannabe]

What does your employment contract state regarding all of your above questions?

 

Not stipulated at all.This is all recent developments, all COVID induced. 

 

But, the Office has been closed indefinitely, equipment sold, given away or stored away.

[marko35s]

I can't say what the legal position is but when I had to travel to clients extensively the understanding was that the first trip out (from home) and the return home at the end of the day were seen as being on your own time and like a normal commute to the office and back. All other trips in between we could claim for fuel.

In our case looking after the vehicle was our own responsibility as part of the employment conditions was to own and maintain a reliable vehicle.

My best guess is that if something is not written into your contract you may be stuck with looking after all vehicle related issues yourself.

Edited December 6, 2020 by marko35s

[bertusras]

Not stipulated at all.This is all recent developments, all COVID induced. 

 

But, the Office has been closed indefinitely, equipment sold, given away or stored away.

 

No, I understand that this situation is due to changes. I'm asking, because it appears that your employer has unilaterally altered the conditions of employment.

 

What were the conditions pre-COVID as per your employment contract? Working hours, car benefit, etc.

[Wannabe]

No, I understand that this situation is due to changes. I'm asking, because it appears that your employer has unilaterally altered the conditions of employment.

 

What were the conditions pre-COVID as per your employment contract? Working hours, car benefit, etc.

 

Bertus, sent you a PM.

[Rocket-Boy]

I worked for Vodacom many many years ago and there were always disputes and disagreements around this type of thing.

 

Their standard was that when you arrived at the first client was the start of your working day.

This was often a problem for me considering those clients could be as far as 450km away, so who was supposed to pay for my time driving to those clients?!? Leaving home at 3am sometimes and knowing you werent being compensated was not ok.

The other was that the first and last 15km of each day was considered private mileage that you couldnt claim form

Servicing was covered by the company up to a very small limit which pretty much would cover a fluid service only.

 

I left them for the exact reasons listed above.

[Longbarn Killer]

If this is an out of the ordinary Covid based scenario, perhaps this should be discussed with your employer and some compromise reached.

 

I doubt you will find any of these in labour law because working hours etc are usually some form of negotiation between employer and employee.

 

If you are incurring costs because of your new working arrangements, again, best is to discuss with your employer some form of cost recovery.

Edited December 7, 2020 by Longbarn Killer

[RocknRolla]

This is uncharted territory for a lot of companies/people.

We too are afforded days to work remotely, but this then means, there should be tax benefit for "home office"

My  wife requested that her contract be altered to reflect that she is not an office worker, and that she uses the home office. Home office is defined as a percentage of your house and you have numerous items that can be claimed for with regards to tax.

 

as stated previously in the thread, you need to engage with your employer to update your employment contract to reflect the changes, so that you can at least claim some of the expenses of a home office back from the taxman.

[Bateleur1]

This is the time you should lawyer up and just get legal input on what is allowed and what not.  I would suggest a one off consultation with all your questions.  Then after being better informed approach your employer and negotiate the fine points.  

[Wannabe]

Thanks for all the input guys.

 

Yeah, as Bateleur suggested, time to Lawyer up.