Contracted hours, pay and provided hours

dori2o

Hi.

A friend of mine has recently been given a contractual change of hours at work. They have been reduced from 30 hours to 23. She signed this new contract at the beginning of August. She has worked for the company for 6 years.

My friend was happy to reduce her hours as she has been offered 10 hours work per week in her local pub so overall she would be in the same position as when she worked 30 hours.

However, for the past 3 weeks she has only been given 19 hours work as there are no more hours to give. This has coincided with the introduction of a new member of staff starting on a 10 hour contract. It seems other staff have lost hours also but some of them were contracted to fewer hours than they were actually working and so have now reveretd back to their contracted hours.

I've seen her contract and it clearly states that she is contracted to a minimum of 23 hours. Elsewhere in the contract it states that she may be asked to work additional hours based on the needs of the business and that any additional hours are paid with a 10% increase on hourly pay. Nowhere does it state that she may have to work less than 23 hours.

Her manager has said that despite the wording of the contract, i.e. a minimum of 23 hours, she will only be paid for the hours she works.

As the contract says nothing about working less than the contracted hours then isn't she entitled to be paid for the full contracted hours?

I thought I had read that this was the case unless the contract made it clear that hours were not guaranteed.

Whilst she was happy to drop from 30 to 23 hours this further reduction is begining to become a problem especially as she is a single parent (widow) to 2 children. Increasing her hours at the pub isn't an option as childcare wouold wipe out the money earned whilst working.

Any advice appreciated.

Rosemary7391

Just a thought: are they offering/could they offer hours that she cannot work due to childcare or her other job? Might that be a loophole for them?

getmore4less

Should be paid foe the contracted if available and willing to work.

dori2o

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

Just a thought: are they offering/could they offer hours that she cannot work due to childcare or her other job? Might that be a loophole for them?

Thanks for the reply. In terms of your question, the answer is No.

There is no issue with the jobs clashing as the main employment is a shop that opens at 7.30 am and closes at 8pm at the latest. The bar work starts at 9pm at the earliest.

dori2o

getmore4less wrote: »

Should be paid foe the contracted if available and willing to work.

Thats what I thought.

She has a couple of further issues.

The employment is based in a bus station. It is a small shop which sells sweets, sandwiches, ciggies, drinks, newspapers/magazines etc and a selection of 'convenience' goods.

She (and all colleagues) work alone during their shift in this store and her shifts are generally either 4, 5 or 8 hours in length. She has worked in this store for only 4 weeks. Previously she worked in another branch in the next town across, however, that store has undergone some reorganisation and the company has cut the number of available working hours so some staff have been transferred to another branch.

Here are her concerns:

-Since starting at this store she has not had any kind of induction.
-She does not know what the instructions are in terms of a fire/fire alarm, meeting points, fire extinguishers etc.
-She does not feel safe especially when closing at night or opening in the morning.
-There is no designated break/lunch area. No chairs at all to sit and have a brew, sandwich etc. Other staff say it is common practice to use the seats in the bus station to
-In order for her to have a break she has to close the shop. The employer states that she is not entitled to a break unless she has already worked 6 hours, and then a 20 minute unpaid break is permittable.
-There is a staff toilet for the shop, however she has not been shown where it is despite having asked the store manager. She has been forced to use the public facilities in the bus station. (Again she needs to close and lock the shop up).
As a result of this she often 'holds it in' until she gets home.
-It is a lone working position, in a bus station, in a town which has its fair share of violence and drunkeness in the town centre.
-Any losses as a result of thefdt are deducted from staff wages if the company believes the member of staff could have done more to prevent it.
-There is limited bus station security who also double up as maintenance/cleaners etc.
-She has had no form of risk assessment carried out.
-She is expected to put out stock as well as serve staff. this involves bringing boxes of stock out from the small store room, and replenishing the shelves/fridges whilst at the same time looking out for customers and checking for people shoplifting, especially during the school rush morning and afternoon, ensuring that the stock in the boxes on the floor is not causing a trip hazard.
-She has had no manual handling training at all during her full employment.

She has become quite depressed over the last few weeks as she enjoys working and previously enjoyed working for this employer until these changes.

Any advice is appreciated. She needs to know what her rights are, what she can and cannot do, in order that she can be armed with the correct facts when she meets with the manager/write to HR with a grievance.