Can my employer force us to work Dec 26th?

System

To those that say I should change my job - what a stupid thing to say? I am not changing my job because of one day. Besides, if I do change jobs in retail, I will be in the same boat.

Around Christmas, it does not make a lot of difference what day of the week Christmas falls on. I doubt there will be more customers shopping on 26/12 as its a Saturday.

My workplace was open on BD. Takings were lower on a normal Friday by 20-25%. Though did get a few more customers as other places were shut. So making colleagues work on that day is pointless for 20-25% as we will be twiddling our thumbs and thinking we shpuld be with our families.

N9eav

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

No, actually they are only guaranteed off if the holidays state something along the lines of 20 days plus bank holidays (so the 26th wouldn't count as a bank holiday this year as its moved to the 28th)

normal.

Depends... I work for an emergency service, so 25,26 and 28 will all be paid holidays. The joy of a 24/7 contract I guess.


I would be interested to know how it works in the OP's case though as my son is in a similar position.


He was given 25 and 26 off this year, but was not allowed his regular day off. I thought that bank holidays were time off for everyone, unless they paid you to work, but I guess that is not the case?

GothicStirling

ScarletMarble wrote: »

My workplace was open on BD. Takings were lower on a normal Friday by 20-25%. Though did get a few more customers as other places were shut. So making colleagues work on that day is pointless for 20-25% as we will be twiddling our thumbs and thinking we shpuld be with our families.

But making money, right? It's not your employer's business to whether you spend time with your family or not (there are another 364/5 days in the year as well).

Takeaway_Addict

ScarletMarble wrote: »

To those that say I should change my job - what a stupid thing to say? I am not changing my job because of one day. Besides, if I do change jobs in retail, I will be in the same boat.

Around Christmas, it does not make a lot of difference what day of the week Christmas falls on. I doubt there will be more customers shopping on 26/12 as its a Saturday.

My workplace was open on BD. Takings were lower on a normal Friday by 20-25%. Though did get a few more customers as other places were shut. So making colleagues work on that day is pointless for 20-25% as we will be twiddling our thumbs and thinking we shpuld be with our families.

The company will still have to pay your wages if BD was a holiday so even if they make £1 it is better than shutting up for the day revenue wise.

Takeaway_Addict

N9eav wrote: »

Depends... I work for an emergency service, so 25,26 and 28 will all be paid holidays. The joy of a 24/7 contract I guess.


I would be interested to know how it works in the OP's case though as my son is in a similar position.


He was given 25 and 26 off this year, but was not allowed his regular day off. I thought that bank holidays were time off for everyone, unless they paid you to work, but I guess that is not the case?

As long as he gets the statutory amount of 28 days holiday per year then its fine (presuming he works 5 days a week). Bank holidays are an ancient thing that really could be done with being disbanded IMO because more and more companies do not close on a bank holiday.

System

I get extra allowance annual leave for bank holidays. I work every Monday and try to book off at least one BH in May, normally the first one. I don't book the rest of them off unless CD, BD and NYD fall on my days in.

I should get my annual leave form for March 2015 - March 2016 next few days.

duchy

That's a bit rude-I know people to whom Boxing day off with their family is so important they would look for another role (and just because you currently work in retail doesn't mean you must always do so -there are other careers out there too)

My company is shift and 365/6 and my old contract gave me Christmas and Boxing days as statutory holidays however after big changes we were given new contracts (no issue with that was all done with TUPE - same job new employer) and given more annual leave days but lost the statutory holidays.

Theoretically there's nothing to stop you booking either Boxing day as annual leave - and to be honest I'm quite impressed you know your shifts a year ahead- This year wasn't so bad as we got our Christmas shifts in November but the year before we didn't get them until 20 December which was no good to man nor dog and caused all kinds of problems .

As for day after Christmas day opening- I agree with you that it doesn't bring extra sales it just dilutes them over more days -I'd be quite happy if the day after Christmas went back to corner shops and possibly the out of town stores only.
I've rarely worked in pure retail but I do remember working in Debenhams one year in a concession -and security refusing to let me leave the building as "No staff can leave until all the sale stuff is done" I pointed out that 1 They didn't employ me 2 Travel agencies don't have sale stock to display and 3 As we were dead quiet (no-one books holidays on Christmas eve) I had spent the afternoon helping out the adjacent departments set *their* sale stuff up as a favour to help them not be stuck til really late.

It caused a huge row and the HR manager was sulking massively - especially when she asked me where the rest of my staff were and I told herI'd sent them home at lunchtime as we had no work to do

Retail staff deserve a Christmas too and what most people forget is than even if a shop closes on Christmas eve early -the staff often are stuck there for hours after closing setting up sale stuff -at least when the stores were shut Boxing day there was time to set up.

ScarletMarble wrote: »

To those that say I should change my job - what a stupid thing to say? I am not changing my job because of one day. Besides, if I do change jobs in retail, I will be in the same boat.

Around Christmas, it does not make a lot of difference what day of the week Christmas falls on. I doubt there will be more customers shopping on 26/12 as its a Saturday.

My workplace was open on BD. Takings were lower on a normal Friday by 20-25%. Though did get a few more customers as other places were shut. So making colleagues work on that day is pointless for 20-25% as we will be twiddling our thumbs and thinking we shpuld be with our families.

duchy

GothicStirling wrote: »

But making money, right? It's not your employer's business to whether you spend time with your family or not (there are another 364/5 days in the year as well).

It doesn't make money
This is the stupid thing about Sunday trading too
More hours doesn't mean more customers -it means same sales over a longer period so costs increase eg wages, light, heat, security etc.

The only reason why stores keep doing it is because of market share. If they made a local agreement that no stores in a locality would open on Boxing day - then they'd actually make more money as costs would be lower- however it just takes one store to decide to open and all the others are forced to join in or they WILL lose market share.

It makes me laugh how those who think shops etc should be open longer/holidays are the ones who don't work in jobs themselves where it is needed or required.
I had a customer who simply couldn't believe that I couldn't send an engineer to his house on Christmas day.......and then told me he was off til 5 January himself and couldn't imagine working Christmas LOL

notanewuser

duchy wrote: »

It makes me laugh how those who think shops etc should be open longer/holidays are the ones who don't work in jobs themselves where it is needed or required.
I had a customer who simply couldn't believe that I couldn't send an engineer to his house on Christmas day.......and then told me he was off til 5 January himself and couldn't imagine working Christmas LOL

Are they? My husband spent years being on call 24/7 and I spent years in hospitality (so your time off with family was one of our busiest times and I was lucky to get 4 hours between shifts). Sister works in the emergency services and doesn't whinge about having to work Boxing Day. None of us think there should be restrictions on when shops can open at all. Let them decide whether being open on a sunday evening is a good idea. (I notice that many of the larger supermarkets are opening at midnight (going into) Monday rather than waiting till 7am or 8am as they used to. Must make business sense somewhere down the line.)

If you don't like it OP, move out of retail!

System

Next year, being a leap year, meaning that we won't have the even worse situation of CD/BD being on Sat/Sun and therefore 27/28 will be BHs. 25/12/16 will be on Sunday.

As regarding Xmas working hours, those that are full time such as myself are given the same days off as we are contracted to. The days we are in, we may get slightly different hours. Obviously those that worked BD could only work 9:30-5:30 as the shop was open 10-5.