do you think i am being discriminated against under equal opportunities?

Question

i have been working for a firm as a driver and because of the date when i passed my driving test i dont have the grandfather rights on my driving licence to drive the 7.5 tonne vehicles. Due to the seniority of the company i choose a job to drive these vehicles and i got the job. The firm said they would train me, this was 7 years ago! I am still waiting to be trained and in the mean time have lost out on my driving allowance of £25 per week. Over this period i have produced my driving licence to the firm which they lost and i had to pay for myself to get it replaced. Now, in April this year the new 48 hour maximum working week starts for the firms drivers. All the other drivers have chosen a 7.5 tonne driving job and now my human resources officer says i should not be able to pick one of these jobs as i am not a current driver! Do you think i am being discriminated against and may have a claim against the company?

Answer 1

Hi,

I hate not being able to tell you what you want to hear but you don't have a claim of discrimination. What I mean is whilst you are being discriminated against i.e. you are being treated differently from those doing the 7.5 tonne job there is no legal protection for you in these circumstances. I think I can still help you though!

I would approach it by putting in writing to your HR department what you have said here about the historic issues you have had and the commitment that was made to you when you started with the company, (if you have anything in writing about this agreement this will help but isn't essential)

It's difficult to see the solution because until they give you the training and you are able to do the job you can't claim that you are entitled to the additional payment, although if you can show that it is their fault that the training hasn't occured and not yours you could claim that they have prevented you from having those earnings.

With regard to picking the jobs in line with the 48 hour working week you should say that you want on of the 7.5 tonne jobs as this was what you were expecting to be your job. If they still refuse you can formally raise a grievance and they will need to investigate and have a meeting with you to discuss this and try and find a resolution.

Now, if you don't get a resolution you are happy with after this THEN you can have a claim, you could resign and claim constructive, unfair dismissal because the company have made it impossible for you to continue working with them as they have broken their promises to you with regard to your job.

I hope it all works out for you.

Answer 2

what number females severe court docket judges or Lion Tamers we've is initially a rely of information on my own. the considered “decrease than-represenation” and so on. is a different rely. The % of complete time coaching Lion Tamers will possibly no longer correspond with the % of females (or the different team) interior the final inhabitants. That on my own would not show “decrease than-representation” no longer to point “discrimination”. the considered decrease than-representation presupposes that the demographics of each commerce occupation or vocation would desire to (for some reason) replicate the demographics of the whole usa. without that underlying assumption the distribution of lion tamer jobs between different socio-economic communities is in simple terms information (and all of us be conscious of approximately them.) as quickly as you’ve bought the belief of decrease than-represented minorities and so on. you could leap without delay to conclusions approximately loss of threat, discrimination and prejudice with no need to having to envision reason and result. then you definately've some thing human beings would desire to purchase without delay into. in case you have already got - at that factor it’s too previous due. the version between threat and consequence in all probability won't in any respect make quite some experience to you.

Answer 3

You could have an equal opps claim. The fact that you are willing to be trained is a factor in your favour. A lot depends on the HR policies they have in place. Speak to someone in HR about it, and also ask if they have a grievance procedure - as it may be easier to do it through the grievance route rather than equal opps.

Good luck

Answer 4

If you've let them mess you abaout for seven years and haven't had the training you've been asking for then you either haven't been persuasive enough to make them train you or they don't think you're worth it, I would have moved on years ago if I'd been promised training and hadn't received it.