Does my employer HAVE to increase my contract?

j1992

I currently work in retail on a 15 hour contract. However, since working at this specific store for the last 6 months, I have never done just 15 hours. I have just worked out my weekly hours, and most of them are 37.5 (full time) and over. The lowest I've worked is 20.5 and that was once.

We currently have no manager or assistant manager in store so I have taken on these roles with another colleague. She asked our regional manager if my contract could be increased, (she's lucky I'm not asking for a pay rise seeing as I'm doing managers work on a sales assistant pay). However, she said she won't increase my contract.

I'm not asking for full time, I'd ideally need 22.5 or 30, but I'd be happy with any increase. Apparently, if you work over your contracted hours for more than 3 months, you are entitled to have your contract increased? However, I'm not sure if this is true. Does anyone have any information on this?

In my job description it does say everyone has to be willing to do overtime, which I am, but I'm working full time on a 15 hour contract and I can't afford to take weeks off.

whitewing

What do you mean by your last sentence?

Do you mean that you need the full time hours for your financial commitments or is it something to do with holiday pay?

j1992

Hello whitewing.

If I take holiday, I only get my 15 hours contracted pay.

This has a significant impact on my pay at the end of the month, and so now I never take weeks off as I earn more by being at work.

whitewing

You may want to call ACAS http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1461

My accountants do my payroll for me. Holiday pay for my staff gets worked out on something like the average of the hours worked over the previous 12 weeks, as far as I recall.

Anyway, yours doesn't sound quite right to me based on what I understand that I have to pay my staff.

comeandgo

I used to run a payroll and that was many years ago but even then our employees holiday hours were calculated as the average of the last 12 weeks due to the amount of overtime they were doing.

j1992

Thank you.

I will need to re-read my contract as I think it says I get my contracted hours when taking any time off. Does it differ between companies? I work for a well known high street store and I've always been told that's how it worked. (I had the same problem at my last job too... maybe it's just retail!)

ihatemyhouse

wait till they start issuing 0 contracts, then there will be probs

Takeaway_Addict

j1992 wrote: »

Thank you.

I will need to re-read my contract as I think it says I get my contracted hours when taking any time off. Does it differ between companies? I work for a well known high street store and I've always been told that's how it worked. (I had the same problem at my last job too... maybe it's just retail!)

I don't believe they do have to increase your contract though not paying you more for doing the managers job is a bit low (but not illegal)

amiehall

Sadly for your employer, the Working Time Directive means that they are required to pay holiday on your average hours not your contracted hours. It's the law and it can't be overruled by anything in your contract. You should definitely speak to ACAS for advice on enforcing your rights.

If your current employer doesn't want to increase your contract despite your commitment and hard work recently, I would be looking for other work. Eventually something full-time will come up if you keep looking!

Takeaway_Addict

amiehall wrote: »

Sadly for your employer, the Working Time Directive means that they are required to pay holiday on your average hours not your contracted hours. It's the law and it can't be overruled by anything in your contract. You should definitely speak to ACAS for advice on enforcing your rights.

If your current employer doesn't want to increase your contract despite your commitment and hard work recently, I would be looking for other work. Eventually something full-time will come up if you keep looking!

Is there a link please? Overtime as far as I am aware is not included in calculations.

amiehall

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Is there a link please? Overtime as far as I am aware is not included in calculations.

http://www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/7/o/Holidays-and-holiday-pay.pdf

If you remember the story from the summer regarding John Lewis employees being underpaid holiday, it was due to them paying based on contracted hours rather than average hours worked.

If your wage can vary from week to week, everything should be averaged over the last 12 weeks.