Doing admin work while on security duty

B.Inky

My partner works as a security officer during the night. His job is to watch cameras, check security, monitor alarms etc. He’s been told that the company he works for are going to ask him to do another job (office administration work) while he is on duty (ie he will keep an eye on the alarms, doing the admin work at the same time). Can they make him do this? His contract has the usual vague terms of summarising his role, but saying that there may be other things he is asked to do, but in 4 years he has never been asked to do anything like this. They are not offering any extra pay- he accepted what he thought was a fairly low wage when offered the job as it was easy and stress free, but now feels he’s being made to do a lot more work for no extra money.
Hope someone can advise us, B.

bryanb

I think you answered your own question when you said whats in his contract.

dipsy

what kind of admin work are we talking here, just checking a few lists that relate to security work or what?

onlyforboards_2

Does his contract state he may be asked to do other things or does it say anything about these other things being within reason.
And what kind of admin is he doing? For example is he doing general office admin the kind that other people do during the day or is he writing up reports relating to his security work?

Dipsy beat me to it!

dipsy

yes but you worded it so much better :-) OFB :-)

B.Inky

We’re talking about the kind of thing that an office worker would normally do in the day time- nothing to do with his job whatsoever. There are other little jobs that he has to do now and then- related to his department, that aren’t specifically mentioned in the contract (I don’t want to post too much detail). I know that most contracts are worded in such a way- does this mean that they can literally ask you to do anything? We will have to check the contract- I have a feeling it might say something like ‘from time to time you may be asked to do other duties’ or something like that. We need to check the exact wording I suppose.

Thank you for the advice so far. If he has to do it, then he has to do it. But I think it’s very cheeky. When he accepted the job, he balanced up all of the terms (anti-social hours vs easy work) and decided that the contract and pay were acceptable. I feel as though they are taking advantage of him at the moment, but obviously he needs the job so it’s just a question of deciding what is reasonable and what isn’t (and more importantly I suppose, what is legal and what isn’t). Maybe we just have to look on the bright side and think of the extra skills he will be able to put on his CV.

onlyforboards_2

It seems that they are giving him a new permanent job role without adjusting his job description or pay.
This is very different to additional tasks.

Bogof_Babe

By implication they are saying that his security job does not occupy all of his time. Is this correct? If he does have a lot of spare time to sit and contemplate his navel then it isn't unreasonable for them to ask him to do something for the money he is being paid during those slack times.

If, however, his security responsibilities do take up all his working hours, then he should ask how he is supposed to include extra tasks without compromising his effectiveness in his primary role.

B.Inky

Yes, you’re right Bogof_babe. It’s quite a passive role and he’s there to keep an eye on cameras and to react if anything happens. But that’s the nature of the job and it’s reflected in the pay. I can sort of see both sides to be honest, but if he wanted to do admin work, he could probably find such a job with much better hours (for example, he worked last Christmas day and new years eve and doesn’t get any over time for it). He’s reasonably satisfied with the job (apart from one or two other separate issues), and the main reason he’s happy to accept the rubbish pay and anti social hours is because it’s an easy stress free job!

Bogof_Babe

Might he find that a bit of light (i.e. uncomplicated) admin work helps to pass the time? Personally I should hate a job where I just had to sit and watch cameras all day, on the offchance of "something happening".

If he shows willing it might in due course be reflected in his salary.

SandC

Well our security guys now have to double up as receptionists cos that position went in the last redundancies. They are doing a fab job at it and are impressively organised but they aren't getting any extra money for it!

It's the way of the world and especially in the current climate. I do agree that some employers will use this as an excuse to money save when they are not really suffering at the time. If anyone who usually does office/admin work has not lost their job then there is obviously more work to do but they can't justify employing extra staff.