Employer insisting that I work every weekend but other staff not required to

O'Goilin

I've worked for a small business for the last 5 years whilst being self employed, working 6 days a week and having one day off during the week. The business is open 7 days a week and over the last 5 years I have worked almost every weekend, both Saturday and Sunday.
I wanted to get away from being self employed so when they offered to employ me I jumped at the chance. Turns out the contract they offered me is a temporary zero hours one on minimum pay, but I figured they needed me, and I do love the job, therefore I signed it. At the same time the boss took on two more people, friends of their family, also on the same contract as myself.
Then things started to change. My working week was immediately reduced to 5 days a week which put a strain on my finances, even though I was still working full time. Now, 3 months later they've told me they want to drop me to 4 days a week. I told them this would put me in serious financial difficulty and therefore I would like to add Saturday to my other 2 days off which would give me the chance of getting a Saturday job to increase my income. I am quite happy to still work Sundays.
The boss has now told me that the job requires weekend work and that he wont let me have Saturdays off. I reminded him there were two other members of staff who should also take turns at working weekends (they have only covered one weekend each for me so far) and that it would only be fair to me to have a rota implemented in which all three of us had to work weekends. He doesn't seem keen to do this and wants me to continue to work every weekend whilst the other two staff members, who have only been there for 3 months, work just Monday to Friday. Nowhere in my contract does it state that I have to work every weekend. And no extra money is paid to me for working weekends, just £7.20 per hour like the other days of the week.
Can the boss make me work every weekend and let the other two just work Monday to Friday? I know a zero hour contract should mean that I don't have to accept work, but I have a feeling if I do this, he will cut me out completely and I'll have no work.
If he won't let me have Saturdays off (I currently have Thursdays and Fridays as my days off) I want the other two staff members to do their share of weekends as well, but I'm not too sure where I stand.
One thing I do know is that they wont be happy about it.
Any suggestions on how I might deal with this please?

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getmore4less

Find another job.

How are your holidays accrued and paid.

elsien

If you were exclusively working for the same company 6 days a week and had no say over the days/hours you worked, I would query if you were ever self-employed. Sounds to me like the company pulling a fast one to try to avoid their responsibilities towards you.
Are these people you really want to work for?

I don't know a huge amount about it, but I'm wondering if your 5 years have effectively given you a contract/employment rights already? Maybe you should get independent advice on this.

DCFC79

I agree you need to find another job.

You could stick to your guns and insist you dont work weekends but as you say they could not give you any work due to you being on a zero hours contract.

sangie595

O'Goilin wrote: »

I want the other two staff members to do their share of weekends as well, but I'm not too sure where I stand.

You don't stand anywhere. You can refuse to work any hours that you don't want to work. But you cannot dictate to the employer which hours you do want to work, or what hours others work. There is no way that you can insist that others "do their share".

I agree with elsien that you may already have continuous employment of more than two years (but without more detail, I cannot tell), but that is really irrelevant - it wouldn't mean that you could do anything at all about the days / hours that you work, and you will still be working weekends. As you did previously. Establishing employment rights won't change that.

Undervalued

sangie595 wrote: »

You don't stand anywhere. You can refuse to work any hours that you don't want to work. But you cannot dictate to the employer which hours you do want to work, or what hours others work. There is no way that you can insist that others "do their share".

I agree with elsien that you may already have continuous employment of more than two years (but without more detail, I cannot tell), but that is really irrelevant - it wouldn't mean that you could do anything at all about the days / hours that you work, and you will still be working weekends. As you did previously. Establishing employment rights won't change that.

It could actually make it worse! Whilst "self employed" the OP can turn down any work that doesn't suit. OK the consequence may well be that they won't get any work that does suit (or any work at all) but that largely depends on how much the employer (client) values their services and how easy they are to replace.

sangie595

Undervalued wrote: »

It could actually make it worse! Whilst "self employed" the OP can turn down any work that doesn't suit. OK the consequence may well be that they won't get any work that does suit (or any work at all) but that largely depends on how much the employer (client) values their services and how easy they are to replace.

I agree. My point was that if the OP were to establish that they are an employee and have been for five years, they would be establishing that their contractual terms were to work weekends. There's no law that says they have to be shared out. My point was that whilst elsien is correct in that they may actually be an employee, it wouldn't make any difference because the terms of the contract would be based on their existing working pattern - which is weekends anyway.

Undervalued

sangie595 wrote: »

I agree. My point was that if the OP were to establish that they are an employee and have been for five years, they would be establishing that their contractual terms were to work weekends. There's no law that says they have to be shared out. My point was that whilst elsien is correct in that they may actually be an employee, it wouldn't make any difference because the terms of the contract would be based on their existing working pattern - which is weekends anyway.

Yes indeed. They may well be able to establish that they were an employee and that would give them some protection from unfair dismissal. As you say the downside is that they would have established a contract for the very hours they are seeking to avoid!

O'Goilin

Thank you to everyone for your replies and advice. At one time I was useful to the business but now I think they are trying to force me out, but the boss wants me to make the decision to leave rather than him being seen to have pushed me - it wouldn't be taken kindly by our clients who I have built a good working relationship with over the years.
I'll probably end up looking for another job. I appreciate your help, a lot of pertinent points have been mentioned. Thanks.

Xbigman

Surely having signed a zero hours contract the op can't now claim they had a full time contract all along?

That's a question not an opinion.




Darren

Undervalued

Xbigman wrote: »

Surely having signed a zero hours contract the op can't now claim they had a full time contract all along?

That's a question not an opinion.




Darren

I was not very clear whether the OP was working for this firm on a self employed basis or PAYE (albeit zero hour).

If they were PAYE then I would agree with you.

If however they were treated as self employed but actually worked as if employed full time then they may well be able to argue that they actually were an employee, had a full time contract and employment rights.

Even if they could, as said earlier, whether that is in their best interests is another matter.