Extra shift but cutting pay, is this incorrect practice?

Jlawson118

So I recently started a Christmas temp job at Royal Mail. I work from 6pm until 10pm Monday - Friday at £7.20 an hour.
I'm a student so it's a nice little part time job to help me save up. However, last week, one of the managers went around asking if we wanted to work an extra hour, so from 5pm until 10pm. I said I would do it, so that started today.

But on the sign in sheet, it said that the paid hours would be four hours and 30 minutes, I wondered where the half an hour unpaid time was going, well that turned out to be for break.

On the original four hour shifts, we were given a 20 minute break and still paid for the full four hours. I know short shifts like that aren't obliged to give you breaks, but at the end of the day, they did and we were paid for them. So the five hour shifts allows for ten minutes more break, yet cutting the pay off half an hour. And I know it's not a lot but it's just principle. It doesn't seem worth working the extra hour just to get half of the benefits for it. I even asked a member of staff today if I chose not to have the break, would I be paid for five hours, the answer was no.

After me and the remainder of us working on the five hour shift spoke to the management, they denied all knowledge of the subject, and just threw the blame at resources, saying it was a daft thing to do. So we all asked if we could go back to 6-10 and they allowed this.

Is this incorrect practice on their behalf?

sangie595

They can do what they like - I agree it's sounding daft, but that's up to their policies to determine. Your managers are probably correct - they don't know anything about it. In a large organisation, policies are written centrally and applied across the board. They wouldn't have anything to do with these decisions.

And a tip for working life. If you have a question about policy, you don't ask "members of staff". There is no reason why they should know the answer - they are in the same boat as your managers (who are really very little fish in the pond). You ask your managers and if they cannot answer the question you ask them to escalate it to someone who does. That way you get accurate answers - hopefully. The reason for this is because if the answer is wrong - and you do something wrong as a result - "I asked Joe Bloggs" wouldn't be a defence. I know that in this case it wouldn't have made much of a difference to anything - but it's a lesson worth knowing. Of course, if you are sensible, once in longer term employment, you join a union and ask them - because in this case they may have found that the payment was a mistake and should be more, or may have been able to get the policy changed for people.