Agency giving disciplinary for refusal of work

VintageBelle

Hi

I don't know if anyone can help. My mom works for a large well known factory/company. A few years back they were bought by a foreign company and all temp staff then had to go via an agency. My mom has worked there for 20 years and been a temp all this time.

Last night they received a news letter to say that the agency will mark down any refusal of work and start to give disciplinarys for them. The problem is that they aren't given set work/hours and they don't know from one week to the next if they will be called in. Often my mom won't find out until the Thursday or Friday if she has work the following week. She even gets calls asking her to go into work that same day, sometimes with only an hours notice to which she has to refuse a lot due to lack of sleep as the shifts are nights and it would involve operating machinery.

She finds it really hard to make any plans or appointments as she needs the work and now is worried that it could affect her job as those that get into trouble are often not called back to work.

Where does she stand with this as I think the agency are being completely unfair? The employees aren't allowed a life!

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated as I don't know where she'd be without this job as she hasn't got the skills or confidence to find a new job and her age would go against her too.

Many Thanks

agrinnall

What sort of contract is she on, is it zero hours or a fixed/minimum number of hours?

specialboy

The agency can just stop giving her work

VintageBelle

She's on zero hours. That's why she is worried because there are times she simply cannot work due to lack of hours. I think it's so wrong that they can do this.

swingaloo

I did 3 years on agency where I was only told by mid-day if I was working on the 3pm shift and only told by 7pm the night before if I was working on the 7am shift.


It makes it impossible to plan on workdays and is frustrating waiting for the call but if any of us kept refusing we would just not be offered any shifts. Unfortunately if the pay is needed then the short notice has to be accepted if you are on agency.

whitewing

See if the local MP can suggest anything.

redpete

whitewing wrote: »

See if the local MP can suggest anything.

Seriously? CAB, trade union or a solicitor specialising in employment law are three places to go before bothering your MP.

specialboy

At the end of the day if she turns down the work then she will probably find she's not offered any anymore.

agrinnall

If she's on a zero hours contract then what is the basis for disciplinary action when turning down the offer of work?

Undervalued

agrinnall wrote: »

If she's on a zero hours contract then what is the basis for disciplinary action when turning down the offer of work?

Exactly.

I think something has got confused here.

OP, the whole point of a zero hour contract is that there is no obligation to offer or accept work. Therefore there is no need for a disciplinary, they could simply not offer her any more work!

Obviously, in the real world, if she regularly turns down work when the firm need her the hours are likely to be offered to somebody who is more flexible.

I think you need to double check the exact arrangements then come back for more advice.

tomtontom

There could be more to this. Has your mum got a regular pattern of work, and/ or did she have one prior to the change?