Employment Law Question

thebottomline

Hello to all you helpful money saving genii,

My wife works for a large retail corporation, who have basically told her that for an upcoming sale, she has to work the evening shift the night before until everything is ready, and that she HAS to be at work the next day for 4:45am. What I'm wondering is (as a brief Googling couldn't help me) is legally, is there a minimum amount of hours she would have to be given between shifts? Because at the moment everyone is talking about a very real possibility that they work 10+ hour shifts, only to return to work 3.5 hrs (or less) later. This just seemed unfathomable to me, so I thought I'd ask the people in the know!

Any help is much appreciated, thanks.

NMSE12

I assume she works for next as i have just had a very long phonecall of a friend complaining about the same thing. I am pretty sure that you have to have 8hrs between shifts!

purplepardalis

I thought it was 11 hours!

iamana1ias

purplepardalis wrote: »

I thought it was 11 hours!

It is, but occasionally it can be reduced (and made up to the employee later). So long as it's not happening all the time the employer can require what the OP has detailed.

LadyMissA

no it is 11 hours between when you leave work and when you next start that is the law

purplephoenix85

Hiya,

I have found the following information useful in the past, for my previous employment - to the point of printing it out in bold letters sticking to my supervisor's desk when asked to work unreasonable shifts!

The legal number of hours between shifts is determined by the Working Time Regulations 1998. They state that the minimum rest period in a 24-hour period should not be less than eleven consecutive hours. In brief, workers are entitled to at least 11 hours rest per day, at least one day off each week and a rest break during the shift if it is longer than six hours. An employer cannot insist that a worker works more than 48 hours per week. Any more than 48 hours are voluntary and subject to an Opt Out agreement.

Note that for night workers, there is a maximum of 8 hours work in any 24 hours on average and a right to free health assessments.

More info can be found at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/work_time_regs/wtr0.htm

HTH

J_i_m

I don't think they can legally force you to do it.

As has been point out you can exceed the 48 hours, and probably the 11 hours between shifts with the opt out scheme.

Your employer can't force you into something outside of law or your contract though.

However, it might be beneficial to be flexible if your situation allows for it, find out if your employer pays unsocial and overtime enhancements, just don't rule it out point blank. If you show yourself willing to be flexible your employer may well be more flexible in return if you need to request a certain day off or something like that. Youo scratch my back and I'll scratch yours kind of thing

dmliverpool

As with others and with the law in mind I would do it as a one off to keep in the good books for her employer. It shouldn't have just come up out of the blue and a more rearmode aspoach would have been to gather a meeting and picked straws etc and given Full detail about the hours etc as well as the related time off for participating.
People who usually work crazy in factories are bullied into waivering working hours rights but usually set a Max number of hours they want to work and play by rule.

LadyMissA

J_i_m wrote: »

I don't think they can legally force you to do it.

As has been point out you can exceed the 48 hours, and probably the 11 hours between shifts with the opt out scheme.

Your employer can't force you into something outside of law or your contract though.

However, it might be beneficial to be flexible if your situation allows for it, find out if your employer pays unsocial and overtime enhancements, just don't rule it out point blank. If you show yourself willing to be flexible your employer may well be more flexible in return if you need to request a certain day off or something like that. Youo scratch my back and I'll scratch yours kind of thing

there is nothing in the 48 opt out to say you will be back in work before 11 hrs!

Hammyman

J_i_m wrote: »

Your employer can't force you into something outside of law or your contract though.

It is not illegal and you will usually find a clause in all employment contracts along the lines of "reasonable request". This is one.

Hammyman

AzimScot wrote: »

I cannot understand why these so called large companies they cannot employ temp staff who can work at those times who are able to work those morning hours making it easier for the existing staff. Ask a union rep.

Because it costs a lot more money and you've got people you do not know with free access to the place with no permanent staff other than one manager. The opportunity for theft is rife.