Sundays Gone...whats my rights??

k-pax

Okay, fairly straight forward.

I work for a government department who are currently open 7 days a week 8am to 8pm. I work part time on a family friendly contract on a Saturday and Sunday.

Turns out they've decided to shut on a Sunday.

I agreed the Family Friendly contract last year which should (theoretically) run for the next 13 years or until my youngest child reaches 16 or until I decide to change it!

Now that they've decided to shut on a Sunday I've been told that I should look at changing my hours so that I work weekdays to make up the hours. Sounds reasonable, except I don't want to and the practicalities of this from a childcare perspective are both awkward and far to expensive. The reason i negotiated the family friendly contract was because it suited me from a childcare point of view and suited the department as they have someone prepared to work the unsocial part of the week.

Here's my question:-

Where do I stand legally with family friendly contracts. Can the department really just expect me to drop my Sunday shift without compensation? Dropping the sunday equates to over 50% of my pay and inidentally they are shutting early on a Saturday which means i am forced to cut my hours on that day also?

Any thoughts on this because i cant get a single word out of my Union which is a bit alarming to be honest

Much apprecited

timbo58

I think any work pattern that you offer to do has to be:
customer demanded and not unduly detrimental to your work colleagues, if I remember the legislation correctly.
Therefore since the case is clearly that Sundays are no longer justified as 'customer demanded' and Saturdays cut would also be defended on these grounds, then any claim that this is detrimental to you is likely to fail IMHO.

The legislation states that employer HAS to consider any application you make for flexible hours but doesn't have to grant them if either of the above apply.
I think you'll have to fit in with the hours now worked or drop the hours you work, I don't think there's anything else you can do: contact the district or national union office if you can't get hold of the rep.

k-pax

Hi Thanks for that reply and I fully acknowledge what you say.

Isn't it just rediculous that a department can cut..... forcibly cut someones hours without compensating them.

They get out of it by offering to let you work within the constraints of the opening hours even when they know I can't work at other parts of the week. If other hours were suitable then I'd have negotiated them into my contract last year at the point of agreeing the family friendly shifts.

Judith_W

I guess this would be the same as a factory not running all week because there is not the demand for it. If you are able to swap your shifts there is still a job for you, otherwise you accept the lower hours or ask for redundancy as your job - working Sat / Sun is no longer available.

If a company is not operating when they were, I can't see how they can be expected to give you compensation. IMO the most you could get is redundancy if you're lucky.

k-pax

Yeh, thanks for your reply Judith. I accept what you're saying, however the critical part of my query was the Family Friendly contract that i'm signed up to.

I'm not allowed to alter the contract for a full year....but the department can come along at any time and tell me they're changing the opening hours and expect me to change.

Incidentally, and this is the bit i didn't add in my original post....there are other parts of the business that remain open 7 days a week. That department advertised a number of vacancies recently (a large number of vacancies) however I and my colleagues are not permitted to apply due to an inter-departmental recruitment ban.

So....its a case of we can't give you a Sunday any more and although there are jobs elsewhere within the department, we're not letting you apply.

Does this put a new perspective on it?

SarEl

k-pax wrote: »

Yeh, thanks for your reply Judith. I accept what you're saying, however the critical part of my query was the Family Friendly contract that i'm signed up to.

I'm not allowed to alter the contract for a full year....but the department can come along at any time and tell me they're changing the opening hours and expect me to change.

Incidentally, and this is the bit i didn't add in my original post....there are other parts of the business that remain open 7 days a week. That department advertised a number of vacancies recently (a large number of vacancies) however I and my colleagues are not permitted to apply due to an inter-departmental recruitment ban.

So....its a case of we can't give you a Sunday any more and although there are jobs elsewhere within the department, we're not letting you apply.

Does this put a new perspective on it?

Don't take this this the wong way. But the government can do what they damn well like. Welcome to the new public sector. They will be entirely happy if you can't do the hours, because you are welcome to stop working provided that you don't claim any benefits. And believe me - I am on your side. But legally you have not a leg to stand on, and they can do this. Your government care nothing about the public sector or "family friendly". And if you hang around long enough there will be someone along any minute who will tell you that being a public sector worker means that you deserve this.

Who said 1984 was years ago????

getmore4less

As I see it probably the only route for compensation could be redundancy, the job you have been doing no longer exists in the same form(Sat,Sun).

Allthough I suspect that the job may still actually be a mon-sun X hours and you are still being offered that so it ends up being negotiate new hours do less or leave.


Why is there an interdepartmental ban? it makes sense to not allow poaching of staff but mutualy agreeable transfers should still acceptable.

Judith_W

From my (limited) understanding, if they are wanting to make you redundant they should be offering you other appropriate positions within the compay, which would be the other CC with suitable open hours.

I think the thing with the FF contract is that they are not arbitrarily (sp) changing your hours, back to the factory analogy, they have been forced into closing for those hours, so could not reasonably keep to the contract. What if the CC was outsourced to India, there would be no way they could keep to the contract (for example)

Hopefully someone will be along with proper facts soon...