Discrimination and Unlawful deductions?

BottomRung

Where I work we must register as a smoker (if you smoke), are allowed 2 15 minutes breaks which must be made up on the same day and not in the lunch hour. If we cannot take one of the breaks or both, we must still make up 30 minutes a day as we are registered as smokers, even if we can't take the break due to being in a meeting or on a call or talking to a customer. I have stopped smoking at work now as it is really quite pathetic that they are discriminating against smokers in this way. Especially when my colleagues spend half the day chatting about football etc. I had my salary deducted last month by 15 quid as I had made up my time but on a different day. When they made the deduction they didn;t tell me what it would be or why and just reduced my basic salary rather than show it as a deduction, which i'm pretty sure is illegal but they don't give a cr*p as everyone is replaceable to them. So now I get in dead on 9 and leave dead on 5 whereas before I would have freely given them extra time if needed. I now have lost all respect for this greedy company, who funnily enough are having the busiest couple of years they ever had.

Question is, is it lawful to force smokers to work 30 mins extra every day regardless of whther they take a break or not? And can they make deductions from my salary without following the rules?

BrettMorganxD

BottomRung wrote: »

Where I work we must register as a smoker (if you smoke), are allowed 2 15 minutes breaks which must be made up on the same day and not in the lunch hour. If we cannot take one of the breaks or both, we must still make up 30 minutes a day as we are registered as smokers, even if we can't take the break due to being in a meeting or on a call or talking to a customer. I have stopped smoking at work now as it is really quite pathetic that they are discriminating against smokers in this way. Especially when my colleagues spend half the day chatting about football etc. I had my salary deducted last month by 15 quid as I had made up my time but on a different day. When they made the deduction they didn;t tell me what it would be or why and just reduced my basic salary rather than show it as a deduction, which i'm pretty sure is illegal but they don't give a cr*p as everyone is replaceable to them. So now I get in dead on 9 and leave dead on 5 whereas before I would have freely given them extra time if needed. I now have lost all respect for this greedy company, who funnily enough are having the busiest couple of years they ever had.

Question is, is it lawful to force smokers to work 30 mins extra every day regardless of whther they take a break or not? And can they make deductions from my salary without following the rules?

I don't know much about the rest of it, but I am pretty sure they have to tell you on your payslip what deductions where made and the reason they were made.

saintjammyswine

If you are not taking these breaks now then surely you should not have money deducted. If you are taking the breaks then you have been told they are unpaid, regardless of the reasons and so the deductions seem reasonable (albeit a little heavy handed).

BottomRung

I'm not hourly paid, i'm on a salary. The reason they will deduct 30 mins per day regardless of whether I take a break or not is that they can't be bothered to check everyones hours every day, yet they make up rules where they MUST check everyones hours every day. If I don't take a break and am registered as a smoker I must still make up the time for it. Also according to the government website it states that deductions must be declared to the employee prior to taking money and must be agreed by the emloyee. It also should be shown as a deduction on the payslip as far as i'm aware.

saintjammyswine

Have you raised this with payroll/HR?

HappyMJ

Then unregister as a smoker at work and decline the offer of 2 additional 15 minute unpaid breaks. Don't take cigarettes to work and only smoke before 9am and after 5pm and during your dinner break and only on your own time.

BottomRung

Yep, well sort of. We don't have a HR/Payroll department. We have a particularly nasty woman that is making these rules up mostly out of spite (I kid you not, we a re all at the mercy of her hormones). Some of her other classic rules have been: Please park your cars facing inward as you are making the building dirty! and Please ensure milk is only used for tea and coffee and not cereal! which led to people chomping on dry weetabix for days. I showed her a printout of the government rules for deductions and she said: I am not deducting, I am not paying you for hours you havent worked. Legally a deduction is anything less that you are ususally paid but she is adamant she is right and it is too late for her to admit any wrongdoing as she would lose face.

BottomRung

HappyMJ wrote: »

Then unregister as a smoker at work and decline the offer of 2 additional 15 minute unpaid breaks. Don't take cigarettes to work and only smoke before 9am and after 5pm and during your dinner break and only on your own time.

I assume you don't smoke? As a smoker of 20 years it's really not that simple i'm afraid. Another thing is, sometimes i'm expected to go out for the company or stay later to finish urgent jobs which, as i'm on a salary, I don't get paid for. It kind of makes this impossible as now I refuse to give them any extra of my time. All this is in reality for a quick 5 min break in the morning and a quick 5 min break in the afternoon. I wouldn't even take 15 mins to have a cigarette.

shegirl

BottomRung wrote: »

I assume you don't smoke? As a smoker of 20 years it's really not that simple i'm afraid. Another thing is, sometimes i'm expected to go out for the company or stay later to finish urgent jobs which, as i'm on a salary, I don't get paid for. It kind of makes this impossible as now I refuse to give them any extra of my time. All this is in reality for a quick 5 min break in the morning and a quick 5 min break in the afternoon. I wouldn't even take 15 mins to have a cigarette.

But you've already said you've stopped smoking at work!!!

shegirl

BottomRung wrote: »

Yep, well sort of. We don't have a HR/Payroll department. We have a particularly nasty woman that is making these rules up mostly out of spite (I kid you not, we a re all at the mercy of her hormones). Some of her other classic rules have been: Please park your cars facing inward as you are making the building dirty! and Please ensure milk is only used for tea and coffee and not cereal! which led to people chomping on dry weetabix for days. I showed her a printout of the government rules for deductions and she said: I am not deducting, I am not paying you for hours you havent worked. Legally a deduction is anything less that you are ususally paid but she is adamant she is right and it is too late for her to admit any wrongdoing as she would lose face.

How horrific *sighs* seriously,you think these rules are awful?

Can I ask why people are eating cereal at work btw?Just curious

You do say that you didn't make up the time you are meant to on the same day as required.If you are going to continue as a smoker at work at least make sure you stick the the rules on making up the time on the same day,that way you won't be having any problems.

I won't comment on the rest as to be honest I'm finding it bizarre and humurous

Edited to add: are the smoking breaks at set times? Are you allowed to have them at a different time if you are in meeting or something? If you're expected to make up the time when you haven't had them due to meetings etc does that suggest that you can have the breaks at another point in the day and it's assumed this is done?

BottomRung

shegirl wrote: »

But you've already said you've stopped smoking at work!!!

I am attempting to not smoke at work, it is a massive struggle and is hard to concentrate. This is only because the rules are being changed to make it impossible for me to comply.