Employment law/rights regarding contract.

whysoserious13

Hi all, will try and be brief so as not to confuse things!

Basically myself and a felloew co-worker have been working nightshift at a well-known high street store for the past 4 years.

We both have 16 hour contracts and have both been at the company for at least 7 and half years each. However over the past 4 years, our average weekly have been as follows, roughly...

2010-27
2011-29
2012-30.5
2013-35

This is roughly the same for my co-worker, give or take an hour or so.

We have asked in the past for out contracts to be increased to the average hours total but have been told no for a number of reasons. The problem is now that we are both looking at mortgages etc and we are limited with our 16 hour contracts despite working about that for the past 4 years.

Are we legally entitled to a contract increase or do we just need to pressure the manager by getting our union involved (we have both just signed up to the GMB union to try help our case).

We are going to write a formal letter to our store manager requesting a meeting to see what he says this time.

Thanks in advance for any replies/advice.

I should also point out that we get paid holiday/sick pay based on our average hours, not our contarcted hours!

DomRavioli

Why would you be legally entitled to a contract increase? (I honestly don't see how that would work!)

Most places will have it written into the contract (especially retail) that you would be required to do overtime to suit the needs of the business - that doesn't give you any legal rights with regards to changing your legally binding contract with guaranteed hours; it will be at the discretion of the business, so please don't go with the same attitude you seem to have had here (don't want to sound harsh, but IMO you come across as if you think you have a right to this but you don't - sugar gets you more than vinegar) and perhaps seek some legal advice from either your union, or a free half hour service if a local practice runs that.

whysoserious13

DomRavioli wrote: »

Why would you be legally entitled to a contract increase? (I honestly don't see how that would work!)

I was simply asking if there was any legal entitlements, which is the case in Norway

Most places will have it written into the contract (especially retail) that you would be required to do overtime to suit the needs of the business - that doesn't give you any legal rights with regards to changing your legally binding contract with guaranteed hours; it will be at the discretion of the business, so please don't go with the same attitude you seem to have had here And what attitude is that? Asking a question on a forum without being able to convey tone properly? (don't want to sound harsh, but IMO you come across as if you think you have a right to this but you don't - sugar gets you more than vinegar I don't like vinegar) and perhaps seek some legal advice from either your union, or a free half hour service if a local practice runs that. Ah some actual advice, thanks!

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anamenottaken

whysoserious13 wrote: »

Hi all, will try and be brief so as not to confuse things!

Basically myself and a felloew co-worker have been working nightshift at a well-known high street store for the past 4 years.

We both have 16 hour contracts and have both been at the company for at least 7 and half years each. However over the past 4 years, our average weekly have been as follows, roughly...

2010-27
2011-29
2012-30.5
2013-35

This is roughly the same for my co-worker, give or take an hour or so.

We have asked in the past for out contracts to be increased to the average hours total but have been told no for a number of reasons. The problem is now that we are both looking at mortgages etc and we are limited with our 16 hour contracts despite working about that for the past 4 years.

Are we legally entitled to a contract increase or do we just need to pressure the manager by getting our union involved (we have both just signed up to the GMB union to try help our case).

We are going to write a formal letter to our store manager requesting a meeting to see what he says this time.

Thanks in advance for any replies/advice.

I should also point out that we get paid holiday/sick pay based on our average hours, not our contarcted hours!

You are not legally entitled to insist on having your contracted hours increased to your average. In fact if your average is currently running at 35 hours there must be weeks when you do less than that as well as more and thus, if your employer did agree a change to your contracted hours, it should not be to the average hours but to something less - like 16 hours, so that they don't need to pay you when you aren't needed more than that in a particular week. (Of course it could be on an annualised hours basis instead.) Push too much on the contracted hours issue and they could say that there is a business case for moving you to a zero hours contract instead.

Mortgages - do you need to say how many hours you are contracted for or are you asked to give evidence of your actual earnings?

It is good that you get holidays based on your actual hours worked. It sounds as though you are aware that companies are not bound to do this - though in the short term you could say they are bound to do so in your cases on a custom and practice basis.

whysoserious13

DomRavioli wrote: »

Why would you be legally entitled to a contract increase? (I honestly don't see how that would work!)

Most places will have it written into the contract (especially retail) that you would be required to do overtime to suit the needs of the business - that doesn't give you any legal rights with regards to changing your legally binding contract with guaranteed hours; it will be at the discretion of the business, so please don't go with the same attitude you seem to have had here (don't want to sound harsh, but IMO you come across as if you think you have a right to this but you don't - sugar gets you more than vinegar) and perhaps seek some legal advice from either your union, or a free half hour service if a local practice runs that.

anamenottaken wrote: »

You are not legally entitled to insist on having your contracted hours increased to your average. In fact if your average is currently running at 35 hours there must be weeks when you do less than that as well as more and thus, if your employer did agree a change to your contracted hours, it should not be to the average hours but to something less - like 16 hours, so that they don't need to pay you when you aren't needed more than that in a particular week. (Of course it could be on an annualised hours basis instead.) Push too much on the contracted hours issue and they could say that there is a business case for moving you to a zero hours contract instead.

Mortgages - do you need to say how many hours you are contracted for or are you asked to give evidence of your actual earnings?

It is good that you get holidays based on your actual hours worked. It sounds as though you are aware that companies are not bound to do this - though in the short term you could say they are bound to do so in your cases on a custom and practice basis.

I don't plan on insisting, just asking as I know the union are very interested to know why we have been working above our contracts for so long.

I think the lowest weekly hours I worked in the past year was 33 hours. 5 nights a week, 7 hours a night is what my regular work pattern is and it is very very rarely I do less than 35.

Regarding the mortgage, they have taken both contracted hours and average hours into consideration. However, if my average hours were to drop to my contracted hours then I wouldn't be able to pay the mortgage so I'm in a bit of a predicament atm.

Thanks