I am not sure where to post this but do you think its legal.

kazd

My brother is a hairdresser, the person who owns the salon he works for is an Accountant. He has been set a target of approx £1400 - £1500 per week. This is only acheivable if he does a cut and finish every 15 minutes. They also send out birthday and anniversary discounts, ie 20% off because its your birthday. If by the end of the week he hasn't met his target and has had several people with the vouchers then the 20% is deducted from his wages.

Surely this can't be legal, he is a brilliant hairdresser and had his own salon but has had a number of personal problems which meant he gave up his salon and moved away. The problem is he is now 45 and salons seem to want to employ young people with no experience.

I went to a very expensive salon, a senior stylist was someone who had completed two years training and an art director was someone who had done three years training. When my brother started, everybody was a junior until they had completed three years. Then they would become a junior stylist. Sorry thats me ranting about hairdressers, however I would still appreciate any feedback on whether the system they have in place is legal.

davidcampbell

does he have a basic wage from which 20% is deducted? if that is the case sounds pretty shoddy to me.

or does he have a basic plus bonuses and 20% is taken off bonuses depending on performance? (which would i assume be ok?)

im no expert though so i guess it depends on his contract. what does that say?

Fran

Yes, the first thing he must do is look at his contract. If this practice is in the contract then that is what he has agreed to, but it does sound dodgy to me too.

IvanOpinion

Defintiely sounds fishy to me!

Your post also highlights another worryinmg trend seen throughout industry both private and publis. People expect to get and often receive promotions simply because they have been in the job for more than 5 minutes. There is no longer a work ethos that you have to EARN your promotion and prove that you are capable of doing the job. I work in IT and it is rife in our industry ... people expect to hold the grade of senior programmer/analyst after a couple of years - when to be honest, the vast majority are mediochre programmers and haven't a clue about how to carry out a proper analysis. They expect to become Team Leader after another couple of years ... many of them can still only just about program and absolutely no Team Leading Flair - relying on personality rather than skill. I also see many contractors with the most rudimentary knowledge of some topic selling themselves as experts.

I believe it is this concept of AUTOMATIC/EXPECTED promotion that is reducing the value of our work force. Nobody seems to take any pride in their work any more!

Ivan

Bossyboots

I don't see how this can be legal as even if it is in the employment contract I am sure it would be deemed an unfair term and therefore void on the basis that the target is not realistically achievable.

If it was legal, then the target figure should be that achieved before the discounts are taken into account. The employee is not offering the discount, that is the gift of the employer. They cannot therefore use the reduced figure in the calculation of targets achieved because they themselves have given a reduction to the customer.

This sounds like an employer I would not want to work for and would suggest the OP's brother look around for an alternative if that is possible, unless he is prepared to stand his ground.

Xbigman

Although pretty poor it probably is legal as long as it doesn't take his wages below the minimum wage.
Regards



X

jaimeo

This may seem silly, but...if the target is so unrealistic as to be impossible then he needs to have a word with his boss. The boss will see sense (hopefully) if confronted with the reality of his targets.

The target is there to provide motivation, not to cheat people out of their wages. As to its legality, i'd say almost 100% likely to be legal. In my job, if i dont charge people £5.95 delivery, i lose 59p in my wages. As I make about 10 sales a day it can add up. But its legal.

I would worry less about the legality of the measure and more about the feasibility.

J

jen_jen_2

is your brother self employed and the target is set to pay off the salon and provide his own income, i thought in the main hairdressers rent space in the salon. if he's self employed then it will be in his contract as long as it doesnt go below min wage (employed) i would think the owner can do what he likes.

before_hollywood

i think he is formerly self employed, now employed by an accountant with a salon.
someone with his experience would be an asset to any salon, he could probably be a manager i bet.
he should be offered a job in no time, before we get into ageism- who realisticly expects someone to do the same job, day in day out till they retire.

kazd

He was initially self employed, renting the chair but he is now employed. Apparently there was a meeting this morning about the target.

He used to work in this same salon years ago under different ownership and through his clients was a regular visitor to the Parky show and met lots of celebrities. He also is hairdresser now to a number of minor celebrities (B list) and is an excellent hairdresser. However, his heart is in music and photography, and in his spare time he is a guitar tech for some group, whatever that might be. In his previous life in that salon he also used to hang out at some recording studios, so as I have said I don't think he would want to move to far away.