Mobile phones in work

fitness fan

Anyone know what the story is with carrying a personal mobile phone in work?

seamus

Workplace-dependent.

The company are well within their rights to state that an employee may or may not have a personal mobile phone on them in work.

However, they would be reasonably expected to provide a means for employees to securely store their mobile phone during working hours and also to provide a means by which the employee can receive emergency calls.

fitness fan

thanks rumour has it it is about to happen in my workplace and was just wondering about it before I kick up a fuss

mikemac

Depends on the workplace

If you are going into a cleanroom in a factory, manning a hotel reception or driving a forklift in a warehouse then using a mobile isn't on while doing your tasks.

In an office, once you are getting your work done and not distracting people, probably fine

Where do you work?

seamus

Well you don't really have any scope to kick up much fuss tbh. Your employer can define your conduct while in the workplace, and if that includes not taking/making personal calls during working hours, then so be it.

In terms of when I mention providing somewhere to store your mobile, think about it this way -
Imagine you work in warehouse. The rules of the warehouse state that you may not wear or carry any jacket except the warehouse jacket, within the warehouse, and same deal with your shoes.

Now, you need shoes and a jacket in order to get to work in the first place, therefore there would be a reasonable expectation that the workplace must provide a facility where you can store your normal jacket and shoes while you're in the warehouse. Since you're wandering around a warehouse, you are unable to keep adequate care of these, so you would expect this facility to be reasonably secure - a locker or similar.

A mobile phone would (IMO) fall into a similar bracket. They're ubiquitous enough now that it wouldn't be reasonable to expect someone to leave their mobile phone at home, so if you're going to have a "no carrying mobile phones" rule in the workplace, then it's only fair that you would provide somewhere for your employees to keep their mobile phones when not working. A desk cabinet or locker would suffice.

This wouldn't be a legal right, however. If your employer said, "Leave your mobile at home", then you would have to take them to court to get a ruling on whether or not that's an unfair expectation of an employee.

fitness fan

thanks for input everyone I work in a production factory in the pharmacutical industry in a city. lockers are provided to all employees so it looks like thats where our phones will have to be stored from now on

IrishEyes19

I would not be happy with storing my phone in a locker at all, OP, regarding the chances of it being stolen if theres thievary or anything. I'm not entirely sure what your work is, but could you get away with just carrying it on you, in pocket or anything?

tenchi-fan

Every non-professional job I worked in told employees they were not allowed their mobile phones on at work.

In practice, everyone carried them on them. The only times a big deal was made was when some idiot was caught texting or answering their phone.

fitness fan

the more i think about it I will not store mine in a locker but carry it on silent in my pocket.The main reasons are it is easy to be contacted by mobile even if I can't answer it I can always sneak off to the locker room to ring back !