UK Employers To Get Blamed For Workers' Driving While Yakking
from the misplaced-blame dept
We've heard of stories in the past about companies getting blamed for accidents caused by an employee who was talking on the phone for work purposes -- with the victims in such accidents sometimes going so far as to sue the companies, claiming they were liable for the damage done. It looks like officials in the UK want to step that up a notch -- and will begin a pilot program of blaming companies any time their employees are caught driving while yakking. From the article (and perhaps it's misleading), it doesn't sound like this is only limited to cases where the employee was doing work-related business on the phone or where the driving while yakking was company mandated. Instead, it sounds as though a driving while yakking offense may be followed up by a uniformed officer showing up at your place of business to have a little chat with your boss -- demanding he or she explain how they intend to curb driving while yakking (it's unclear what they do if it was the boss who was doing the driving while yakking). Companies may receive "improvement notices" and if the situation doesn't improve (i.e., someone gets caught again), the company may be fined. Obviously, the goal here is to put pressure on companies to get their employees not to talk on the phone while driving, but, if it's not concerning work-related matters, it's hard to see why the company should have a say in what people do on their own time in their own cars. Of course, on the flip side, perhaps the program is designed more to scare people out of driving while yakking, to keep a cop from showing up at your office to talk to the boss.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
It honestly scares me how many laws and programs to control citizens countries are using today. I predict sociatal meltdown in the next 50 years at this rate.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
When someone is driving a vehicle for their employment, it is the employers responsibility to make sure that the driver does so safely.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
UK Employers To Get Blamed For Workers' Driving Wh
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Just a thought...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I wonder...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yes, in some cases, the driver might be answering the phone in work related areas, still I believe that it is the responsibility of the driver to make a decision whether they should or shouldn't answer the phone whilst driving a car on the road.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
ding ding ding! personal responsibility. now to get the rest of lazy humanity to buy in to it. there's more freedoms that come with it, like if you don't want to wear a seatbelt, fine: but your health insurance won't cover your bill (that's how tricare (military insurance) works) if you screw up.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
what would the thriving industries that profit from
the culture of victimization do? How would governments
justify their ever increasing budgets and creeping
infringements on personal rights?
People should be held responsible for their acts. Otherwise
they are /just following orders/ and that's a bad path
to follow.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yakking
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Yakking
Talking...now that's a word.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Yakking
Yakking is not an eglish word, and I suspect the author is not English too...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
companies to adopt a no yakking while driving
policy. I guess the police would then expect
the company to punish the employee when it
was reported that the policy has been violated.
It's a rather convoluted, big-brother way to go
about it though.
Better the employee refuses to violate the law
when asked to do so by the employer. That goes
for speeding to meet some schedule, dumping
waste down a storm drain and myriad other possible
scenerios.
Trying to coerce an employee to break the law
is against the law but that would be more difficult
to prove I suppose.
Overall I think encouraging people to be responsible
for their own actions has a more beneficial effect
on society as a whole.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
British law = 1984
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its all about the money baby
But do people really want this level of responsibility placed on third parties? Will they then go after the phone company for allowing someone to talk while driving? Should we place devices triggered by GPS if there is movement then we shouldn't allow the phone to work? Do we then ban radios from cars, drive thru windows, and mirrors on the visor so women can't do makeup?
The only way to ever prevent accidents is to ban cars. But that is going to happen by the oil industry as gas keeps going up.
Chris Rock said it best, if you want to stop crime with guns, don't ban the guns, just make bullets $10,000 each.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yakking- The way around it
Britain - a fine country - there's a fin for EVERYTHING (unless you're an immigrant)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Other way around
.
I've know friends and co-workers that have got into trouble at work for not immediately answering their work mobile phone (whether on call, or just working outside of the office) - generally the reason was that they didn't answer because they were driving... however when under fear of getting into trouble with the boss people are more inclined to do the wrong thing and use the phone while driving.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yanking while driving
[ link to this | view in chronology ]