Falkirk Council's EV charging policiy sparks angry response from workers

The response comes after the council clarified its policy on the charging of electric vehicles for its building maintenance team, with workers who take their council vehicles home told they have to charge them in their own time, not during working hours.

It was stated the council’s building maintenance employees were being told “under no circumstances” were they to charge their vehicles in council time as they will not be paid for this.

A council spokesperson said: “We are against employees charging council vehicles during the working day when our tenants want them to be carrying out much needed housing repairs and upgrades.

"Vehicles collected from the building maintenance depot are fully charged and will last the entire day. Some building maintenance employees have the benefit of being able to take their council vehicle to and from their home.

"This saves them money and is good for productivity because they can drive straight to their first job in the morning rather than coming to the depot to collect their vehicles.

"In return, we ask that they charge the vehicles at the end of their shifts near their homes with the EV charge cards we provide for free, or that they charge the vehicles around the Falkirk area while on their lunch-breaks.

“If any employee does not wish to be involved in charging vehicles on this basis they can collect vehicles from the depot at the start of their shifts.”

A council employee, who did not want to be named, said: “Why are the drivers of the electric vehicles the only being penalised when the drivers who have diesel vehicles are not?”

Another worker added: “When it comes to charging the vehicles at the yard the council only has 28 slow charging points and there are more than 28 vans, so not everyone can get the vans charged.

"Some of the employees are charging the vans at about 4pm while filling out their daily work lines and have been told not to by the council.”