Can Ocado do this?

upsadaisy

Ocado have told employees that they will be required to work Sundays now. They already work Saturdays. There will be a shut down day on tuesdays. Another day off during the week will be given, but staggered on shifts.

I'm not sure when the company expects its' employees to see their families.

Are there any legalities to be considered?

925dancer

I have no idea about legalities but in the world of retail closing on Sundays is rare! Ocado must be one of the last few big retail companies to close on Sundays. Lots of people work on a rota system not always have a weekend day off, you've just been lucky up until now I would say.

It's the nature of the business and I'm sure there will be a clause in your contract about you agreeing to work according to business needs or something. I'm sure someone with the legal knowledge will be along.

upsadaisy

It does say in the contract to agree to work some Sundays but this was explained during Christmas time when orders are up. But I don't think being expected to work every single Sunday and Saturday with your days off in the weekday is fair.

alisonmeyers

"I don't think being expected to work every single Sunday and Saturday with your days off in the weekday is fair."

Fair?

It's the norm in retail environments.

Whether it's legal is another matter wrt contracts and stuff like that - I'm sure you're going to get good advice on here from that angle.

But don't try coming at this from a "fairness" angle - I'm surprised you are working in retail environment and expect to not work any day of the week. Shoppers want convenience, it's as simple as that.

"I'm not sure when the company expects its' employees to see their families."

Er, not every family works a Mon-Fri 9-5.

One of my best friends works for a national supermarket chain with varying shifts, but mostly he's off Tuesdays and Wednesdays, that's his weekend. His wife has decided to work a similar pattern - she works self employed at a hairdressing salon, and has Tuesdays off, half day Wednesday. It works quite well with them - "off peak living" has its advantages.

Hell, even our household isn't Mon-Fri 9-5. I actually can't think of any people I know where both adults work fulltime and they both have Mon-Fri 9-5 jobs. I'm sure households like that exist, but for a good chunk of the working population times have moved on. In most cases with relatives there's a part timer or some other sort of non-traditional way of working. I think supermarkets have split shifts from 6am to 2pm? I remember my uncle did that for a few years, he loved it (getting home early, beating traffic, etc).

DCFC79

Wouldnt the sunday hours be 8 till 5 anyway, the staff in the shops work saturdays and sundays and they have families albeit not all of them but some will

safesound

Check out the section titled "Special rules if you are a shop worker or work in betting"

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10028516

patman99

Tell them you cannot work on Sundays due to your religion.

Emmzi

patman99 wrote: »

Tell them you cannot work on Sundays due to your religion.

God doesn't like liars.

antrobus

safesound wrote: »

Check out the section titled "Special rules if you are a shop worker or work in betting"

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/WorkingHoursAndTimeOff/DG_10028516

Which summarises the law succinctly as follows:

"You should check either your contract of employment or written statement of terms and conditions to see if you must work on Sundays or would have to if you were asked. If it says so, you will have to work on Sundays. If it doesn't, then the only way of making you work on that day is by a change to your contract. This is something that must normally be agreed by both you and your employer, otherwise making you work on Sundays would amount to a breach of contract."

So the answer to the OP's question would be, 'No', since employers can't unliterally change contracts of employment on a whim. However they often do, and get away with it, for the obvious reasons.

And whilst there are indeed special rules that apply to shop workers, I'm not so sure that they apply to Ocado employees, since Ocado doesn't actually have any shops,

SarEl

antrobus wrote: »

Which summarises the law succinctly as follows:

"You should check either your contract of employment or written statement of terms and conditions to see if you must work on Sundays or would have to if you were asked. If it says so, you will have to work on Sundays. If it doesn't, then the only way of making you work on that day is by a change to your contract. This is something that must normally be agreed by both you and your employer, otherwise making you work on Sundays would amount to a breach of contract."

So the answer to the OP's question would be, 'No', since employers can't unliterally change contracts of employment on a whim. However they often do, and get away with it, for the obvious reasons.

And whilst there are indeed special rules that apply to shop workers, I'm not so sure that they apply to Ocado employees, since Ocado doesn't actually have any shops,

Actually - the answer would be "yes" not "no" - because in post #3 the OP has stated that their contract says that they must work some Sundays.

DCFC79

antrobus wrote: »

And whilst there are indeed special rules that apply to shop workers, I'm not so sure that they apply to Ocado employees, since Ocado doesn't actually have any shops,

im aware ocado have no shops but does that make a difference as they are still a business