Reduced Hours no warning

marisa

Hi Everyone,

My friend came to me for advise so I thought I would get some more opinions to add to the smelting pot.

He works in a small community owned/ran bar. Without warning the boss reduced his hours from 17 to 10, maybe less. He turned up for a 6hour shift one day to find out he was only needed for 3hours of that.
This caused great upset, but in hindsight we want to look into the legalities of this. He feels they are reducing his hours to force him to quit as he has had a few disagreements with the manager in the past, and was not happy about him requesting and taking holiday he was entitled to even though the manager authorized it.

He does not get any breaks as is only person behind bar, and gets no sick pay.

I have long said it is not a good working situation but it is convenient to him and even though he sends applications elsewhere nothing else has appeared.

With the hours as they were was failing to pay bills and getting behind, now has no chance.

If he quits will he be able to get benefits until finds a new job, or not because voluntarily left work even though it was a bad situation and not enough hours?

The alternative as I see it is to wait around to be fired then can go on benefits until get a new job, but this is a risky strat and could go on for months.

I dont like having to suggest things that include benefits but it is a bad situation, he cannot afford to live on current wage but if quit has 0 income and who know show long till anything else comes along.

Anyone got any ideas of what best to do here?

spadoosh

Whats his contract?

jobbingmusician

How long has he worked there?

Evilm

I was about to ask the questions mentioned above. I suspect his contract is "zero hours" and doesn't confirm a set pattern or number of hours per week in which case he has very little recourse.

However you used to be able to sign on if you were working less than a certain number of hours a week (16 I believe but it might have changed) and they *might* pay a small uplift on the wage depending on what it now means he is working. A friend who worked 'zero hours' in a nursery used to go in and declare every week what she'd worked and they'd give her a payment for the difference (but it wasn't much).

SeduLOUs

What they can do depends on how many hours he is meant to be given as per his contract. I also suspect he is on a zero hours or 10 hours contract.

My suggestion? Stick it out whilst looking for other work. No point hanging around getting depressed and waiting to be sacked (getting sacked just makes finding the next job harder, even if you claim it was unfair) and no point resigning and leaving yourself with absolutely nothing. If you're only working 10 hours a week there's plenty of spare time to look for something else.

marisa

SeduLOUs wrote: »

What they can do depends on how many hours he is meant to be given as per his contract. I also suspect he is on a zero hours or 10 hours contract.

My suggestion? Stick it out whilst looking for other work. No point hanging around getting depressed and waiting to be sacked (getting sacked just makes finding the next job harder, even if you claim it was unfair) and no point resigning and leaving yourself with absolutely nothing. If you're only working 10 hours a week there's plenty of spare time to look for something else.

he says he is on a 20hour contract I am yet to see this to confirm exactly how it is written.
He has been there just over a year.

My advise is to look for more work, but he is really depressed now over it all and lacking motivation. Feeling harddone by and will not snap out of it until gets what feel is entitled to so is sticking at this and talking about taking to tribunal? Is that even a serious option here?

marisa

Evilm wrote: »

However you used to be able to sign on if you were working less than a certain number of hours a week (16 I believe but it might have changed) and they *might* pay a small uplift on the wage depending on what it now means he is working. A friend who worked 'zero hours' in a nursery used to go in and declare every week what she'd worked and they'd give her a payment for the difference (but it wasn't much).

anyone know if this is still the case, a little extra funds would go a long way?

Evilm

marisa wrote: »

anyone know if this is still the case, a little extra funds would go a long way?

Direct Gov would seem to suggest so as they have 'working less than 16hrs a week' as a criteria: http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/documents/digitalasset/dg_200090.html