Manager refusing to alter Sunday working Hours

stuart30

sangie595 wrote: »

No it does not say that. It says that she cannot be forced to work on a Sunday. She CAN be forced to work any other day of the week. She has contractual hours to work and the EMPLOYER decides when those are. Not her. If she does not wish to be bound by her contract any longer, then that is called a resignation. Which sounds best all round. Working must get in the way of cleaning your house, cooking your meals and polishing your club.

Hmmm cant see where it states that she has to agree to work days that she isnt physicaly able to do..?

And for the last time she had an agreement to drop the sunday...so loose one day per week,reducing hours.:T

Opting out of Sunday working
All shop and betting shop workers can opt out of Sunday working unless Sunday is the only day they have been employed to work on.

An employee can opt out of Sunday working at any time, even if they have agreed to work on Sundays in their contract.

The employee must give their employer 3 months’ notice that they want to opt out of Sunday working. They must continue to work on Sundays during the 3 month notice period if their employer wants them to.

An employer who needs staff to work on Sundays must tell them in writing that they can opt out. They must do this within 2 months of the person starting work - if they don’t, only 1 month’s notice is needed to opt out.

Staff who opt out of Sunday working mustn’t be treated unfairly.

An employee can’t be dismissed or treated in an unfavourable way for choosing not to work on Sundays.


Thank you and goodnight god bless.:j

iammumtoone

stuart30 wrote: »

Again i"ll say it in case i didnt make it clear...they agreed she could stopped Sundays and cut her hours down.

Did she get this in writing stating the start date? If not unfortunately that was a mistake as it has now become a case of 'he said, she said'

I changed my hours at work but they couldn't start straight away so I got it in writing what those hours would be and the starting date.

Unfortunately that part of your posts was missed due to the excessive and unnecessary threats of violence towards your wifes manager. Kept the thread to the facts and you might get the help you need.

stuart30

iammumtoone wrote: »

Did she get this in writing stating the start date? If not unfortunately that was a mistake as it has now become a case of 'he said, she said'

I changed my hours at work but they couldn't start straight away so I got it in writing what those hours would be and the starting date.

Unfortunately that part of your posts was missed due to the excessive and unnecessary threats of violence towards your wifes manager. Kept the thread to the facts and you might get the help you need.

Yes fully agree with you,as said its a relief valve....have a good rant and calm down.

Id say that's more sensible

Letter stating reasons why and date the 3 months would take her last sunday too,was agreed and id assume would have been acknowledged.

As said before its hugely frustrating that she feels pressured to do what her employer wants,sometimes its blatantly dangerous what she has been asked to do and still she doesnt have the confidence to stand up for herself...so tells me and id either encourage her to go through correct channels or if its something more complicated she will often ask me to deal with it for her.

Not everyone is confident to stand up for themselves.

Mersey_2

stuart30 wrote: »

You seem to miss the point and thats she has followed the relevant employment law and given 3 months notice as she has the right to stop working sundays as all Shop employees who work other than just sundays.

she has been lied to by her manager and she feels very let down.

Im assuming her manager cant change contract after previously agreeing a different contract.

You are correct, in both her statutory right (which she has asserted in the proper form and notice) and that the employer would also be committing breach of contract if they now purport to unilaterally alter a fundamental term of contract ie her working days.


Shop workers employed prior to Sep 1994 have the statutory right to refuse to work on Sundays.


Those employed since in England & Wales (or since April 2004 in Scotland) can also refuse as long as they give 3 months' written notice to their employer.


Employees cannot then be treated unfairly or be dismissed for refusing to work Sundays. Indeed, if they are, it is automatically a case of unfair dismissal. This applies to full and part-time employees.




stuart30 - your wife is best sending a polite email to HR/a Director of the firm, reiterating her statutory right, pointing out the chronology and that any refusal would be actionable as both breach of contract and employment law.

Mersey_2

sangie595 wrote: »

It may be her legal right to opt out of Sunday working that she had agreed to

Or do you mean that she doesn't want to work Sunday and the employer is supposed to organise their business around her so as not to inconvenience her? I'm afraid employment doesn't work like that.

Indeed it is.


Er yes, employers have to do precisely that re shopworkers on Sundays. If they do not, they are in breach.

I realise some may not be aware of or like this law, but they cannot simply ignore it and its consequences.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Mersey wrote: »

Employees cannot then be treated unfairly or be dismissed for refusing to work Sundays. Indeed, if they are, it is automatically a case of unfair dismissal. This applies to full and part-time employees.

Is there a reason to assume that asking her to work on Saturdays is treating her unfairly?

Mr.Generous

(From my experience in retail) When Sunday working became legal and the double time paid previously was dropped quite a few managers said they wouldn't work any more Sundays, some stores the whole management team were looking to opt out. The area manager did a tour round and held informal meetings, the plan was they would recruit weekend managers for the stores opting out and would drop 8hrs from each opting out managers contract to fund the recruitment.

The area manager basically said something like 'retailing is a seven day business. You are going to impact your own careers if you do this, and the opportunity for moving stores (which was to a higher turnover unit with a pay rise) will be limited to only the stores with a weekend manager. the message was pretty clear, opt out and your finished. It doesn't matter what the law said, the company would be set against you. I cannot recall a single store manager or assistant manager who opted out, a couple of department managers did and they were never promoted or moved up the ladder. Staff who opted out were no big deal, you just took on weekenders to cover.

Retail is a 7 day business. If you can't work on the 2 busiest days of the week they are not going to be thrilled. There are usually jobs for people who want evenings or mornings or whatever, so I don't see why this is such a big issue, unless your wife is one of only a couple of people doing a specialist role like cash office or pricing. If she left tomorrow they would re organise and find a way round it. Give formal written notice to opt out and copy it to the regional office / HR team. But don't expect any favours.

TELLIT01

stuart30 wrote: »

Again i"ll say it in case i didnt make it clear...they agreed she could stopped Sundays and cut her hours down.

Information does seem to be appearing in bits and pieces. I didn't see any reference to cutting hours in the original post although I may have missed that. The problem remains that your wife and the manager have different opinions on what was agreed. Did you wife have anything in writing at the time stating that hours were being reduced? If not, she would seem to have a weak case, unless others were there during the discussion and will back up her version of events.
If the employer is saying she has to work Saturday instead of Sunday, and your wife is saying she can't work Saturday it would seem there is one inevitable outcome.

sangie595

Mersey wrote: »

Indeed it is.


Er yes, employers have to do precisely that re shopworkers on Sundays. If they do not, they are in breach.

I realise some may not be aware of or like this law, but they cannot simply ignore it and its consequences.

Had you not edited out the pertinent bits of my part your answer would be plainly incorrect. I didn't say that employers don't have to respect opt outs for Sunday working. I said that they do not have to work around employees the other six days of the week.

Anyway I am out. The OP is clearly only interested in grasping what they wish to hear, and it will soon be all moot anyway. There are just so many ways to get rid of someone that don't involve anything to do with Sunday working.

flightboy

Surely this is simple...how many hours is she contracted to work? she can opt out of Sundays as her right but if she then does less than her contract hours the manager can ask her to work her contracted hours on other days no? if a few staff did this he would have the cost of hiring someone to cover days others dont want to with the extra costs on his budget

Still got what you asked for ( no Sundays ) seems reasonable to me