Advice required concerning Company policy over drink drive convictions

[blackcat]

Hi, all I need some Help please...
I have been working for a company for a year now and have been able to drive vehicles within there fleet i.e.. vans, 4x4's, quads, ride on mowers etc., when starting they checked my license and all was good they use the DVLA site as required my license shows that all I have is various SP30's, last week however when checking for dates regarding these SP30s I inadvertently revealed my "spent" DR10 to various management who told me on the spot that I can no longer drive company vehicles as the policy states that no one is allowed to drive company vehicles for 11 years from date of conviction (2007 in my case) due to insurance reasons. I have a H R meeting next week to discuss this matter as I believe that there could be some concerns into the legality of the above, so i would like some advice regarding a few issues that this has risen.
1/ Did the management have the right to coerce me into revealing my DR10, this was done because I opened my own personal DVLA records using NI number and postcode rather than using there in house system or using the unique share-code to which both could have been implemented but would have only shown unspent convictions NOT the spent DR10 ( its my belief that reports had gone to them of a possible DR10 in place etc,.)
2/ Are the management allowed to ask for me to open/print copies of said personal DVLA page without prior warning that information could incriminate me, under data protection laws also due to Rehabilitation Of Offenders Act 1974 I did not need to disclose said information and can that information be used by third parties i.e other management, H R etc within the company.
3/ Do I have any legal standing regarding there in house policy of banning people from driving company vehicles within 11 years due to insurance reasons although the conviction is 'spent' and insurance companies as far as I'm aware cannot discriminate against people with spent convictions, as, as far as I can see with the new DVLA policies in place i,e scrapping of paper parts to the license and more reliance on on-line technology I cannot see how there policy can now be enforced unless everyone willingly gives them all the information they desire, which alas is n't going to happen.
4/ Are there any useful links anywhere where I can get more information concerning the above or any case's that are similar or equal to the above that I can use as reference, also any information that may be useful that I may of missed from the above.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mclanelli]

Hi, all I need some Help please...
I have been working for a company for a year now and have been able to drive vehicles within there fleet i.e.. vans, 4x4's, quads, ride on mowers etc., when starting they checked my license and all was good they use the DVLA site as required my license shows that all I have is various SP30's, last week however when checking for dates regarding these SP30s I inadvertently revealed my "spent" DR10 to various management who told me on the spot that I can no longer drive company vehicles as the policy states that no one is allowed to drive company vehicles for 11 years from date of conviction (2007 in my case) due to insurance reasons. I have a H R meeting next week to discuss this matter as I believe that there could be some concerns into the legality of the above, so i would like some advice regarding a few issues that this has risen.
1/ Did the management have the right to coerce me into revealing my DR10, this was done because I opened my own personal DVLA records using NI number and postcode rather than using there in house system or using the unique share-code to which both could have been implemented but would have only shown unspent convictions NOT the spent DR10 ( its my belief that reports had gone to them of a possible DR10 in place etc,.)
2/ Are the management allowed to ask for me to open/print copies of said personal DVLA page without prior warning that information could incriminate me, under data protection laws also due to Rehabilitation Of Offenders Act 1974 I did not need to disclose said information and can that information be used by third parties i.e other management, H R etc within the company.
3/ Do I have any legal standing regarding there in house policy of banning people from driving company vehicles within 11 years due to insurance reasons although the conviction is 'spent' and insurance companies as far as I'm aware cannot discriminate against people with spent convictions, as, as far as I can see with the new DVLA policies in place i,e scrapping of paper parts to the license and more reliance on on-line technology I cannot see how there policy can now be enforced unless everyone willingly gives them all the information they desire, which alas is n't going to happen.
4/ Are there any useful links anywhere where I can get more information concerning the above or any case's that are similar or equal to the above that I can use as reference, also any information that may be useful that I may of missed from the above.

Thanks in advance.

You have no legal standing regarding their fleet insurance policy; and that's really all you have to consider in this instance.

I understand where you are coming from with the other questions, but they are all irrelevant now. Your employer is now aware of the conviction, and their insurance policy doesn't cover you, and that is often the case with fleet insurance policies and fleet vehicles.

Your employer has the right to view your licence and convictions at any point; if you drive a company vehicle or have access to one

They didn't "coerce" you; as you have stated that you inadvertently revealed the spent convictions.

An insurance company can ask an individual if they have "ever" been convicted of a drink drive related offence. Whether the conviction is spent in legal terms is irrelevant. People often incorrectly make the assumption that once a conviction is spent, it will never need to be mentioned in the future; but if you are asked the question then you have to answer honestly.

The question you should be asking your HR representative is why you weren't asked this question when you started driving for this company; because technically you wouldn't have been insured. Your employer has a duty of care to ask about this type of conviction if it voids any policy, but you also have a legal obligation to check any policy against and vehicle that you intend to drive. If you don't do that, and there is an accident, you can end up being sued personally for damages by the third party's insurance company as a result of not having a valid policy in place. If a third party turns out to be uninsured, then you can sue them personally in the county courts, most people don't realise that. So a void policy can end up costing you everything if the amount awarded is high enough. Imagine if someone had ended up with long term injuries as a result of an accident that was deemed to have been your fault; and the policy had been void. If the other party had sued you personally imagine how many thousands it would have been for. Your employer has potentially put you at risk from such a situation, and you should bring that up.

M

 

[price1367]

Maclenelli has summarised your position well, what do you expect your company to do? They have said that the insurance will not cover someone with a DR10 in the past 11 years. This may be unreasonable, but short of them changing the insurance company they are stuck with the terms and conditions, and you are excluded for cover. They therefore cannot allow you to drive their vehicles, and if your job requires you to drive then they have no choice as to what they can do about your employment.
I am not good on employment law but if you have been employed for 12 months, and you feel you are being unfairly dismissed then I believe that after that length of time you could take them to an employment tribunal. Your problem with this might be that your action is really about the insurance company refusing to provide cover, and you do not have a contract with them. You would have to show that your employer was unreasonable in failing to protect your rights by allowing the insurance company to stipulate a condition that was against the rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
A conviction remains unspent while there is an endorsement on your licence. There is an argument that says that as the DR10 remains on your licence for 11 years, this means that it is discloseable for 11 years. It is actually only an endorsement for 10 years, with the extra year in case of a further conviction at almost 10 years. You get the situation where a drink drive conviction appears spent under the ROA after 5 years, but is still properly shown as an endorsement on a licence for a further 5 (6) years. Most insurance companies ask if you have had any points of disqualifications in the past 5 years, but I have seen where the question was "do you have any endorsements on your licence?" This was in a post here last year where a person was denied employment by an driving agency for a DR10 some 7 years earlier. The justification was that their contract with the company they were supplying required them to only send drivers who had a licence free from endorsements.