Girlfriend's job terms have changed considerably

blizeH

My girlfriend currently has a 'between jobs' job of sorts, it's minimum wage and she didn't enjoy it, but she was happy enough to do it.

However, her boss has suddenly started asking her to work elsewhere, doing a worse job, and with maybe 3 hours travelling involved and extra costs each day - which at minimum wage isn't ideal!

The problem is she doesn't have a contract, but she certainly wasn't informed of any of this during her interview or the initial stages of the job, it was just straight up "Oh, by the way we want you to work here..." with pretty much zero option of saying no.

Is there anything she can do? She wants the job mostly because she wants a good reference, but I'm not sure it's worth all this, especially since the new place will often require her getting in at 5, and the buses don't even run that early!

Thanks

Googlewhacker

as she has already started doing this its a bit late to kick a fuss up and as she has not been there for 12 months I'm guessing she has very little employment rights either I'm afraid

blizeH

Agh, bad news, but as expected...

Oh, one other thing - the boss is playing them in a way. She currently works between a coffee shop and sandwich shop (adjoining) and the people in there were annoyed that she wasn't there to help them out, they asked their boss about it, and he said to them that my girlfriend wasn't there because she wanted extra hours, which of course is a lie. So it's causing friction too

RuthnJasper

Oh, I'm very sorry for what your g/f is going through. But she really does need to get something in writing - some form of proper contract - or she could really be asked to do literally anything. She could broach it in a positive way with her boss (e.g. "I really like working with you, but I hope you can understand my situation..." even if she doesn't necessarily feel 100% like that), rather than charging in all guns blazing. But she DOES need some kind of proper contract, for her own sake. As the clich! goes - a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on...

She is lucky to have a supportive partner like you who is trying to find sensible ways to help her. Good luck to you both. xx

getmore4less

blizeH wrote: »

Agh, bad news, but as expected...

Oh, one other thing - the boss is playing them in a way. She currently works between a coffee shop and sandwich shop (adjoining) and the people in there were annoyed that she wasn't there to help them out, they asked their boss about it, and he said to them that my girlfriend wasn't there because she wanted extra hours, which of course is a lie. So it's causing friction too

She needs to nip this, tell the others where she is working and why.

Not a lot she can do with the lack of service without risking being terminated.

If the job was taken on the premise/understanding it was at one location then the lack of contact/particulars mean that any mobility has to be agreed. problem is she has agreed allready so not so easy to back out now.

One thing this job will be a good education of how things should be done.

Start reading up about employment law

This is a good read

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/contents

Direct.gov has some good stuff as well

blizeH

Thank you so much for the replies and advice guys, I think like you said she needs to go about it nicely and tactfully (which she would anyway) but in a way that's kind of like, as you said "I'm really grateful to be working here and don't want to let you down, but..." and see how that goes. Fingers crossed he'll be reasonable!

zzzLazyDaisy

How long has she worked for this company?

blizeH

Around a month

zzzLazyDaisy

blizeH wrote: »

Around a month

Oh dear! Okay, in that case she has very few rights.

If she chooses not to cooperate with the employer they can dismiss her and she will have no come-back whatsover (unless she can show that she is being singled out for different treatment to her colleagues for a reason relating to unlawful discrimination, which is very unlikely from what you say). So it seems like appealing to their better nature is the way to go....

blizeH

Good shout, thank you