The question about T's &C's I can't answer, but the Sunday thing is, I believe the same with most TOC's now.
Some staff are protected, and have kept their old contracts. For them, Sundays are NOT, nor have they ever been, part of the working week.
For me, and most staff that have started fairly recently however, being on a new contract, Sundays ARE part of the working week.
If I don't want to work it, I must make myself unavailable before the 48 hour markup comes out. If it can be covered with volunteers, that's fine, I don't work it. If, however, it cannot be covered, then I am contractually obliged to cover it. At the moment, I'm SUPPOSED to work 11 Sundays out of a 36 week link, so around one in three. I daresay the whole ugly subject will rear it's head again in the near future - it does from time to time no matter who you work for. Fairly recently, Virgin drivers turned down a 10k payrise to work (I believe) one Sunday in three.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Book on then travel - why not just have them book on at Newport?!
You'd be surprised how much travel happens at the beginning and the end of jobs, as well as how many jobs don't!! A lot of our jobs start from the BOP, but there are more than a few that don't, that require a taxi to or from the start or finish point, or a train if there's one that fits with the diagram - or occasionally a half hour sprint on a long distance service. There do seem to be more drivers jobs that require that, but there are plenty of Senior Conductors that have to do it too. We have an early morning train that leaves my BOP that ALWAYS leaves with 3-4 drivers and at least 3 Senior Conductors riding on it to start their jobs.
It may be that the guy you're talking about that had to travel from NWP to BTM on the back of the job couldn't work a train back to his BOP and stay within his daily hours - so has to to go back on the cushions. Bear in mind that NWP to BHM is around 2 hours each way, so plus his turnaround in Brum, plus the travel through the Severn Tunnel prolly makes his day around the 7 hour mark. If they're on a 5 day week (I'm not, my depot is 4 day so 9 hours is a day for us) then their day is only gonna be 7 hours 12minutes - hence he's over his day if he works one back from Newport. If they changed over at Cheltenham, that wouldn't be making much of their available time, coz it's a lot less from Cheltenham to Brum than it is Newport to Brum. Just saying!!
Those guys that do the diagramming - I take my hats off to them, it must be a nightmare putting it all together.
