Employment rights different for FT Hourly Paid employees and Salaried workers?

hcanni819

Hi there

I work in Retail and at the moment there is some hours cutting going on with our 2 Supervisors and wanted a bit of advice as I think the bosses seem to be doing this unfairly..

We have one supervisor who is contracted to 40 hours a week on a permanent basis, earning £7/hour. The other is also contracted to 40 hours a week on a permanent basis, but on a £15k salary.

What appears to be happening is that they are cutting the hours of the hourly paid employee to 8 (from 40) claiming that they are doing this as the rights are different/lesser for hourly paid staff. The salaried employee is being untouched.

Is this fair to be done on these grounds alone?

agrinnall

While I can't imagine employment rights are any different for hourly paid or slaries employees I don't see any reason why an employer can't cut hours for anyone they want to, I don't think there would have to be any element of fairness to it.

SarEl

Whilst your legal rights are no different, it is entirely possible that your contractual rights are. Hourly paid staff generally have different contracts with less claim to the hours they work - the employer usually has the ability to vary hours as they wish. So you might want to check what it says in your terms and conditions.

hcanni819

agrinnall wrote: »

While I can't imagine employment rights are any different for hourly paid or slaries employees I don't see any reason why an employer can't cut hours for anyone they want to, I don't think there would have to be any element of fairness to it.

Isn't cutting hours similar to redundancy in that there should be a fair reason involved if there's 2 people of the same stature/position involved?

Catherine_Johnson_2

hcanni819 wrote: »

Isn't cutting hours similar to redundancy in that there should be a fair reason involved if there's 2 people of the same stature/position involved?

I guess it depends on what their contracts say. Perhaps the hourly paid staff have flexibility in their contracts for the hours to be varied?

SarEl

hcanni819 wrote: »

Isn't cutting hours similar to redundancy in that there should be a fair reason involved if there's 2 people of the same stature/position involved?

Not if your contract permits them to cut hours it isn't!