work expects me to work through unpaid dinner hour

Pete111

I too am curious MSE79 - What do you do?

BTW love the way you use the 'entitled by law' comments - It's as if you think that following the OPs comments the coaches are going to be flagged down and boarded by SO19....

Employment law is enforcable ultimately only by employment tribunal and this one is going nowhere near such a body so realistically the company is going to go ahead with their (quite reasonable) trade off here despite the rather ludicrous whinings of the OP....who knows, they may find that a free lunch on a coach with their colleagues is rather better than kicking about the same old shopping centre for yet another lunch hour...

P

moneysavingexpert79

Zazen999 wrote: »

Is this on top of the 20 minutes PAID break that the OP gets every day?

As I said earlier; we should all choose our fights carefully. The employer would be well within their rights to start looking at this paid break time in a cost cutting exercise if staff are inflexible on other time issues.

If a person works more than 4 continuous hours per day then they are entitled by law to receive a 15 minute paid break.

valk_scot

I'd just do it. I'd get 2x 45 minutes uninterrupted knitting and gossip time on the bus, the opportunity to have a quiet zzzzzzzz if the speeches were really boring and not have to pay for my lunch that day, unless I took in some extra snacks to eat on the bus. Any break from the same deadly routine would also be a bonus. Also I would avoid being labelled as an inflexible trouble maker...yes, it's not ideal for management to be imposing this sort of extra on staff, but if they're otherwise fair and reasonable in their work practices then I would cut them a bit of slack just this once. It hardly seems an issue worth picking up a bad reputation for. As others have said, pick your battles wisely.

moneysavingexpert79

Pete111 wrote: »

I too am curious MSE79 - What do you do?

BTW love the way you use the 'entitled by law' comments - It's as if you think that following the OPs comments the coaches are going to be flagged down and boarded by SO19....

Employment law is enforcable ultimately only by employment tribunal and this one is going nowhere near such a body so realistically the company is going to go ahead with their (quite reasonable) trade off here despite the rather ludicrous whinings of the OP....who knows, they may find that a free lunch on a coach with their colleagues is rather better than kicking about the same old shopping centre for yet another lunch hour...

P

Alternatively the OP's union rep should pull his/her finger out of her butt and make management aware that they are practicing something that would be determined by an employment tribunal to be unlawful, and call a strike.

Bogof_Babe

moneysavingexpert79 wrote: »

The balance of power does NOT lie with the employer. It is a mutual agreement with no favourability of power, enforced by a contract of employment.

It's nothing about being inflexible - it's about getting paid for participating in duties that are demanded by the employer. I have already said that the employer's request isn't anything unreasonable, but the fact that they are not paying for the hour IS unreasonable. I would also expect the lunch to be paid for.

By 'professional approach' I presume you mean butt muncher. The salary that someone is on in a call centre doesn't warrant a 'professional approach' when the employer is trying to CHEAT their way out of paying probably 100's of employees for 1 hour's worth of wages. It is obvious they have thought this through, and have chosen not to pay the employees, saving them £1000's.

Are you a sandwich maker by trade? Why do you take offence regarding my reference to factory made sandwiches as 'scabby'? And I can bet, if they arn't paying their employees out of choice for this hour, then they'll have phoned the cheapest, scabbiest sandwich company of them all.

I am not a sandwich maker (except for my own consumption, and they are not scabby either). I was just pointing out the rather childish attitude that pervades your thoughts on this whole matter. You are trying to add to the impression of how hard done by the OP is, by implying that she (presumed from username) will be given nasty rubbish and forced to eat it or starve.

It is easy to see why some people do dead end jobs, because they have a dead end attitude. Surgeons don't walk out of the operating theatre at knocking off time do they?

Zazen999

moneysavingexpert79 wrote: »

If a person works more than 4 continuous hours per day then they are entitled by law to receive a 15 minute paid break.

Sorry; they are entitled to a 20 minute break if they work over 6 hours. Whether it is paid or not is down to the company.

Where are you getting your 'entitled to' information from exactly?

Oldernotwiser

moneysavingexpert79 wrote: »

1) Your examples can no way be compared to the original thread. However, I would also expect to be paid for travelling time, and for all my expenses (food, taxis, etc) to be paid for. I would also expect to be paid unsociable hours and overnight stay allowance.

You could "expect" until you were blue in the face but you wouldn't get anything except for your out of pocket expenses.

moneysavingexpert79

Bogof_Babe wrote: »

It is easy to see why some people do dead end jobs, because they have a dead end attitude. Surgeons don't walk out of the operating theatre at knocking off time do they?

Surgeons earn between £80000 - £100000 per year. Call centre people earn £12000 - £18000 per year. Slight difference there.

Are any of the naysayers on this thread a member of a union? Or are you a bunch of scabs? (for a quick reference on scabs and union members, watch Billy Elliott)

custardy

chops22 wrote: »

If it's only a one off I would just go and eat the sarnie and listen to the speach. I get a lunch hour, sometimes I work it, sometimes I have an extra ten mins, sometimes I need to nip out and collect the kids etc.

Its all give and take. Are you not curious as to what the speech is about??

all well if you have an employer that does a bit of giving after the taking

Pete111

moneysavingexpert79 wrote: »

Alternatively the OP's union rep should pull his/her finger out of her butt and make management aware that they are practicing something that would be determined by an employment tribunal to be unlawful, and call a strike.[/QUOTE]


Mate you are hilarious.

Delusional yes, but hilarious nevertheless

You see how many of the OPs colleagues are willing to support him in strike action :rotfl:over this 'issue' :rotfl::rotfl:after the announcements at the meeting...