Employee Hours and Regulations

shell7t8

Hi All,
I wonder if you could help..

I have started my own business and employee one member of staff. I'm in the process of putting together an employment contract and need to work out holiday entitlment and working hours.

The member of staff wants as many hours as possible. Each day constitutes 6 hours of work (12 - 6). We need someone to work 7 days per week and were going to employ a second member of staff to cover days off/holidays etc but for starters we will only have the one and he has said he wants to work all of the 7 days. Is this allowed? The maximum working hours will only ever be 42 and 6 hours per day but do we have to make him take one full 6 hour day off or based on each day only being 6 hours is 7 days per week ok? I dont want to be breaching any laws and also want to make sure we work out holiday pay correcty. I know people are allowed 5.6 weeks of holiday pay but as his "week" would be 7 days thats a hell of a lot of days to have off during each 12 months! I've scowered the HMRC site but can't find anything about whether people can work 7 days in a row continuously or not if they are on reduced hours.

Any advice gratefully received!!!

Shell

mightymole

i might be wrong but i think he has to have 1 day off per week

anamenottaken

The employee has the right to take time off and have a weekly break but is not forced to do so.

The same applies to holidays - it's an entitlement but not forced by law if the employee doesn't want to take the time off. However, as an employer it is sensible to insist that employees do take their holidays.

pinkypoopydoo

From an employers point of view, having one member of staff working 7 days a week (legal or otherwise) is a very bad move, as it means you have no leeway with sickness cover or unexpected absences.

That said, I *think* if you contract them for 6 days a week, and class day 7 as overtime, and stipulate in their contract that overtime is paid at a normal rate, then they can work 7 days.

paulineb_2

Id never employ anyone who wanted to work 7 days a week, thats madness, even if its legal due to the breaks they have inbetween shifts, its not healthy in my view.

Id have a look at the european working time directions for a start. I think theres a big risk of burnout with someone working a 7 day week.

getmore4less

There is a lot more than holdays and working time to sort out.

You have a lot of research to do, might be worth employing a HR company to do the basics, thye can modify an off the shelf generic contract.

what about sick policy
what about overtime
what about variable hours
what about a disipline policy.
What about emergency leave policy

very basic policies can come from the working time and employment acts

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/18/contents
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/contents/made

along with all the various interpretations on .gov, hse, acas, union... sites

Savvy_Sue

shell7t8 wrote: »

I know people are allowed 5.6 weeks of holiday pay but as his "week" would be 7 days thats a hell of a lot of days to have off during each 12 months!

Actually, I think you'll find that the entitlement to 5.6 weeks is based on working a 5 day week: you don't have to give more than 28 days even if someone is working a 6 (or 7!) day week.

And if, as suggested, you make it a 5 or 6 day week with the extra days as overtime, then these need not accrue entitlement to holiday pay. Whereas if you give them a zero hours contract, then ALL their hours accrue holiday pay.

But I think it's barmy too: get another person in as soon as you can!

paddedjohn

As above, the maximum you need to give your employee as a minimum entitlement to holiday is 28 days even if they work 7 days a week. If they want to work the 7 days then they can as long as its voluntarily.

shell7t8

Thanks all,

Im not goingto just have one person all the time butwe had to move fadt as the other one we had lined up let us down at last minute which then led the current one to say hed like to work as many shifts as possible as he is saving for a deposit on a house. I just wasnt sure if i could legally allow him to do that. I think then maybe it is best to contract him for 5 days per week and class anything else as overtime then. Is he still entitled to 28 days hol leave even though his "day" consists of 6 hours whereas a normal working day may be 7.5 or 8?

Also, he started last thursday and is due payment this week. He started thursday but couldnt work friday, sat, sund, mond or tuesday as our equipment hadnt arrived and we wernt open. Do i have to start his holiday from thursday and pay him even though we wernt open? Most of the days were bank holidays so. Was going to pay him but take out of holiday ent but it doesnt seem fair and also doesnt seem right o have to pay him holpay eventhough only been with us one day!

Any ideas?

notanewuser

shell7t8 wrote: »

Thanks all,

Im not goingto just have one person all the time butwe had to move fadt as the other one we had lined up let us down at last minute which then led the current one to say hed like to work as many shifts as possible as he is saving for a deposit on a house. I just wasnt sure if i could legally allow him to do that. I think then maybe it is best to contract him for 5 days per week and class anything else as overtime then. Is he still entitled to 28 days hol leave even though his "day" consists of 6 hours whereas a normal working day may be 7.5 or 8?

Also, he started last thursday and is due payment this week. He started thursday but couldnt work friday, sat, sund, mond or tuesday as our equipment hadnt arrived and we wernt open. Do i have to start his holiday from thursday and pay him even though we wernt open? Most of the days were bank holidays so. Was going to pay him but take out of holiday ent but it doesnt seem fair and also doesnt seem right o have to pay him holpay eventhough only been with us one day!

Any ideas?

You need help with this. Yes, you'll have to pay him, and if you're going to have bank hols as part of his leave entitlement that's what you'll have to do.

28 days applies whatever his hours are. You'll be paying him for a 6 hour day whether working or on holiday. It matters not what hours others work in other jobs.

Savvy_Sue

notanewuser wrote: »

You need help with this. Yes, you'll have to pay him, and if you're going to have bank hols as part of his leave entitlement that's what you'll have to do.

I agree, you need to get a written statement of terms and conditions which covers situations like this, eg if the equipment breaks down you need clauses to say what happens. Also if you want to have set closures eg if you're on holiday, then it's a good idea to have that in writing.

In this case, I'd suggest that as you're planning to pay him for 5 days and let him do an extra two as overtime, that you make M-F his 'regular' days, then pay him for Th, F, M and Tu, but deduct F and M from his leave entitlement. Sat and Su would have been overtime but it wasn't required.

You need to work out when you're going to start your leave year, as well. Again, in this case I think I'd say leave year was going to run from 1st January, and then pro rata your 5.6 weeks / 28 days by dividing by 12 and multiplying by 8. That gives 18.6 days, you round that up to 19 which takes care of the fact that he started right at the end of March.

One compelling reason NOT to do this would be if you expect a mad rush for your services in December, in which case you could run into problems with people wanting to use up their leave at your busy time.

BTW, your statement of T&C needs to include something about leave being pro rata in first and last year of employment, and that you can deduct from salary any overpayments. So if this chap then books 2 weeks holiday in May and leaves at the start of June, you're not out of pocket on that front.

But this is why you need advice ... sick leave, statutory maternity / paternity / adoption leave, emergency dependents leave etc etc etc. You need to know about these things, or have someone to turn to who can advise you. Who's doing your payroll, can they help?

If not, look at ACAS and see if there is a model contract there, if there isn't it will at least tell you what assumptions are made if you don't put one in place, eg how much notice either side needs to give.