Christmas shutdown

paul1988

Hi there,

Got into work to find out my company is on shutdown for 12 days over Christmas and New year,we have bin told we have to work 4 days back for them to pay us over this period.

Now i could do with some help on what the implecations could be if i refuse to work these 4 days and do i have a legal leg to stand on.

Many thanks

brendon

I assume you are taking the 12 days over Christmas as holiday (some of these will be bank holidays, some will be workday holidays.) In general, depending on your contract, your employer can dictate when you must take holiday.

That said, you would probably have to work the 4 days within the holiday year (Jan-Dec?). In the same way that you cannot roll holiday over years without the employer's permission, they cannot roll over lieu days without your permission (for then it would contradict your holiday entitlement.) It depends on what your contract says.

paul1988

Hi there thanks for your reply,

These 12days are down to the company shutting down,no holidays are been honoured so we have to work 4 days for Christmas eve,monday&tuesday and new years eve.

It states in my contract that any shift change has to be given 90days notice,this purposel came out on the 23/10 and only just bin confirmed.

They say we have no choice but to work these days or go to other sites to make the days up.

Seem like its bully tactics by the company

Many thanks

Nebulous2

That's a pretty vague definition from the contract, but they could certainly argue that shift change meant a permanent change to the shift pattern, not a one-off change.

A shutdown over Christmas and New Year appears to be becoming more popular with companies recently.

The alternative may well be 4 days unpaid.

specialboy

You company can dictate when you have your holidays and if they are saying you can't have any over Christmas then you need to use them up before that time.

Tiddlywinks

uptothesky wrote: »

Your company need discuss with staff before release decision. Holiday must be hornored. If you don't want to go to office at holiday, let's ask for day off. Or anayone who would want to earn more money, they can accept this require

Eh?

Trying to raise your post count?

TBagpuss

Just want to check if I've understood:
Your company is closing down for 12 days over Christmas and of those 12 days, have effectively told you that you need to either have them as unpaid leave or that you will need to work 4 days when you would not otherwise have worked? Or that if you don't agree to work 4 days at another time, you will be required to work on 24th, 29th, 30th and 31st, possibly at a different location.

Before they made this announcement, when were you expecting to have to work?

paul1988

Thanks for the replys,

They purposed that the shifts we made up were 14/11,21/11,5/12,12/12 this was only agreed with the council that we have on site not the workforce.

My contract is monday to Thursday 12hour days anything over my 40 hours is paid at overtime.

These shifts are in place so we get paid over the shut down period but the shut down was decided by the company.

If we decide we dont want to work the shifts purposed we will be forced to work at another site on the 24/12,29/12,30/12/,31/12

Many thanks

babymoo

Not sure on the legal implications of it but in my previous job the company shut down over Christmas and it was part of my contract that I had to hold back 4 days or 3 days (depending how the holidays fell) to cover my time off during this period.

How it works when not in your contract I am unsure. Interesting to find out though.

getmore4less

I can't work out what you are saying or they are rying to do.

if you have contractual days and there is no provison to change them in the contract then they should either pay you or use your holiday allowance to cover them if they want to shut down and not hav you work.

What is the holiday year and how many days do you get?

paul1988

What you mean by holiday year??

Basically they want us to work the days back they are shutdown