Employment Advice Needed

yiddo13

Hi,

My partner has been working for her current company for approximately 18months.

For at least the past 6 months she has never been home on time, had to work a Saturday and a full weekend unpaid and on at least one occasion in each of the last three weeks she has been home around midnight after starting at 8:30am (10:10pm, 00:40am, 04:15am).

This morning was the worst coming in at 04:15am, meaning she worked a 20hour day, for only 8 hours pay.

My understand of employment law is not great but I believe the company she works for has contravened the working over 48hours for an average of 17 weeks and also on between 3 and 4 occasions she has not had the full 11hours plus travel time rest between work.

I wondered if anyone with any knowledge would have any advice on if there is any course of action that can be taken, my friend mentioned that she could only go to a tribunal after working for them for 2 years. The worst part about all of this is that 4 more of the staff have been put in the same position threatened with their jobs if they do not stay and work unpaid.

Thanks in advance

elsien

Do the extra hours take her below national minimum wage if the pay is averaged out across the hours she has put in? That's another factor to look at and report.

ref the working time directive, I think that's enforced by HSE but I don't know the mechanisms. Give ACAS a ring for more advice.
Is she in a union, if so, get hold of them.

In her situation I'd be job hunting anyway - they're taking the proverbial.

yiddo13

She has been job hunting for about 2 months now, nothings come up yet but I've told her she needs to hand in her notice. As for the national minimum wage I'm not sure about this. Typically she's not in a union, she needs to get out ASAP. I personally think she should get signed off with stress, she is starting to struggle with panic attacks and is in no state to drive to work never mind do 20hour shifts. Just had enough of the situation so heaven knows how she feels...

elsien

My guess would be she may well be below the NMW which is a criminal offence for the employer. However she's back in the bind of potentially losing her job if she does so, with no tribunal rights.
How badly does she need the job and is it worth risking her health for? Would she be prepared to say no to the unpaid hours and risk the consequences? She also has the option of reporting them after she's left, if she has proof.

maninthestreet

Did your partner sign an opt-out to the Working Time Directive?

yiddo13

She didn't opt out, I have checked her contract. There was no 48hour opt out letter either. I have told her to hand her notice in. We need the money there's no doubt, it doesn't help that we have a big holiday booked to the USA next month (been booked for 9months) so funds are going to be low but I feel if she continued there it would strain our relationship but more importantly her health beyond repair.

Moneysaver199

That's awful. Does she get paid when she's off sick? She sounds like she genuinely is sick - ie having panic attacks about the work situation, I'd say that qualifies as work related stress.

Even if she doesn't get paid (should get SSP at least), would it give her the space she needs to do some serious job hunting and also step back before it has a long term effect on her health?

Horrible situation to be in. I hope she finds something else soon.

maninthestreet

Does the employer have a HR dept?
AFAIK, if the employer is denying employees their statutory rights, they can still be taken to a tribunal by an employee with less than two years service.

yiddo13

As far as I know she would only get SSP, which is better than nothing but she is stressed to death, it's taking over her life but I know she is too proud to go and speak to a doctor about it unfortunately.

They don't have a HR department. She has spoken to both her line manager and managing director about the hours that her and her colleagues have been working and they just brush it off as "everyone does it" and constantly threaten them with the sack if they don't.

The other major problem is that one of her colleagues handed in her notice last week, another is handing it in today so it only leaves her and one new inexperienced staff member so she feels alone in-terms of battling for fairness and even more the extra workload which will come with those two leaving as they've already hinted that they don't intend to replace them.

Moneysaver199

yiddo13 wrote: »

As far as I know she would only get SSP, which is better than nothing but she is stressed to death, it's taking over her life but I know she is too proud to go and speak to a doctor about it unfortunately.

They don't have a HR department. She has spoken to both her line manager and managing director about the hours that her and her colleagues have been working and they just brush it off as "everyone does it" and constantly threaten them with the sack if they don't.

The other major problem is that one of her colleagues handed in her notice last week, another is handing it in today so it only leaves her and one new inexperienced staff member so she feels alone in-terms of battling for fairness and even more the extra workload which will come with those two leaving as they've already hinted that they don't intend to replace them.

Well, if it only leaves her then she kind of has something over them too. Clear others aren't prepared to accept it and there aren't enough hours in the day for one person to cover two others so that's not going to work.

Could she try just reverting to 'normal hours'. ie walk out at 5pm or whatever and just see what they do? That said, this sounds like it's really affecting her health - the stress etc, so unless she is able to take a laid back approach and chance it a bit then she won't cope with doing that.

One thing that does spring to mind though - why is she 'too proud' to go and see a doctor? She needs to address this issue one way or the other and being signed off sounds like the way to go as it's becoming a health issue now. The employer is treating her badly, it's nothing to be ashamed of. I'd seriously advise that she needs to get away from work right now.

As for tribunal etc, I'm not sure how she would stand there, however it doesn't sound like she needs the stress of that either if she doesn't want to see a doctor.

yiddo13

I know exactly what you mean but she seems to think its something she would be ashamed of and that in a way they've "beaten her" so to speak. I wonder if it would be worth trying the tactic of taking her notice in and saying that she will be handing it in unless she can leave at 5pm every day and if they want her to work anymore that they give her notice and pay her. Whether they'd agree who knows but they're heavily reliant on her as they have had a new computer system installed and she is the person who is trained on it and knows how to use it so I guess that could be her leverage?