:mad: They don't pay overtime and it cant take it as time off.DO WE WORK FOR FREE?

teajug

It is not fair to ask employees that are on the lowest pay to suck up hours of unpaid work for employees that are not struggling to survive.
I feel it would be better to refuse to do the unpaid work and say it is not possible due to other commitments outside of work.

Gillyx

It's not the lowest pay though is it? It's £7.20 an hour and a step up from Joe Bloggs on the shop floor. I was paid £6.20 an hour when working as a team leader for a supermarket, while the people under me were paid something like £6.05, but I took on the extra responsibility for the experience and in the hope of using that as a stepping stone out with that company.

My OH works as a supervisor for a medium sized retailer here, and when he's on "lates" his finishing time is 11 (in reality the shop closes at 11, he has to cash up tills and an ATM machine before he can get out, which is usually around 11.20/11.30) The company say "oh take an extra 20 minutes break throughout the day" but in reality it's not possible. He doesn't like it, but took the job on to boost his C.V, experience, and employability. He also gets paid ALOT less than £7.20 an hour. After lates he's usually on earlies and he's to be at work for 6.30am, when you take in travelling time, it's not enough "rest time" as outlined in his employment handbook, but what will happen if he complains? He ends up on constant lates probably and noone wants that.

I understand where the OP is coming from, but I almost feel in todays market, employers seem to hold all the cards sadly. I'm not saying it's right, but I see it all too often.

claire16c

so what is she doing about it? have you checked to see what it says in her contract about paying for over time?

£7.20 for London which I think this supermarket is in, is not much.

Gillyx

Is the minimum wage different in London? I'm not sure of these things I thought you got more when working in the city, and team leaders I know working at Mr T's get more than £7.20 I think (out with London) I'm not sure.

Anyway I don't think moving to another job would outright solve the problem as you may find you face the same problems elsewhere.

When I first started working for the company I worked with they were actually quite good, but as the recession took hold, they didn't seem to give a monkeys and that stems from the fact, less people will walk out over poor conditions etc when there aren't an abundance of jobs out there.

My dad and grandfather would walk out of sites they'd been working on, if they didn't like it and find a new job almost immediately, the days of that are long gone.l

custardy

Gillyx wrote: »

Is the minimum wage different in London? I'm not sure of these things I thought you got more when working in the city, and team leaders I know working at Mr T's get more than £7.20 I think (out with London) I'm not sure.

Anyway I don't think moving to another job would outright solve the problem as you may find you face the same problems elsewhere.

When I first started working for the company I worked with they were actually quite good, but as the recession took hold, they didn't seem to give a monkeys and that stems from the fact, less people will walk out over poor conditions etc when there aren't an abundance of jobs out there.

My dad and grandfather would walk out of sites they'd been working on, if they didn't like it and find a new job almost immediately, the days of that are long gone.l

london weighting has an effect on all wages really even if its not classed as such
Living in Edinburgh i think theres a case for Edinburgh weighting

Gillyx

custardy wrote: »

london weighting has an effect on all wages really even if its not classed as such
Living in Edinburgh i think theres a case for Edinburgh weighting

Your damn right there, I went out for a night out once and nearly had to go bankrupt :eek: George Street is not my friend.

I love Glasgow for the cheap drink and all the jakeys

My dad has worked in London, albeit many years ago, and he basically used his weighting allowance up on travel, as he couldn't afford to stay remotely near where he worked. I dread to think the travel costs now.

teajug

I would have thought that employees would start on the minimum wage and get pay rises in accordance with company policy.

It is counterproductive of employer to take advantage of good staff like this as they are trained and are obviously loyal to the company why do they keep asking them to work for nothing, in my experience the more you did at work the more would be given to you to do, whereas others would be much slower and not give so much to do. The recession hopefully will end in a couple of years time, good staff will walk from bad employers and who would blame them.

Gillyx

I agree with you Teajug, it should be reward for hard work, but I don't think it's always the case, I'd say large companies just take it for granted.

I'd say most supermarkets, noone starts out at minimum wage, infact if I'm correct, everyone at Tesco is going up to £7p/h come October? I'm sure I read that somewhere. So a good bit more than minimum wage, at least £40 a week before tax more than people on the £5.93p/h that's NMW at the moment.

I hope when the recession ends people do walk away, it'l serve these companies right.

claire16c

There isnt a London nmw but most companies do pay more i would guess from what Ive seen. But on a 40 hour week someone on £7.20 would only be earning about £50 a week more though which does not go far in London.

I know when I used to work in a supermarket, Waitrose did not pay more than Tescos or Sains, despite the fact you might think they would do because of the image they give off. Perhaps the OP wife should look at working as a team leader in another supermarket. Who knows the pay might be better. I also got 2 more weeks holiday at Sains.

outtawork

I got paid to work 25 hours a week, but I always had to work an extra 15 hours unpaid every week for over a year. The company wanted me to come in and do the accounts on my day off, as they changed the processing day,I refused to work any more unpaid hours. Guess what, I was made redundant and haven't worked in 3 years.