Employer treating me unfairly. Discrimination

[Deleted User]

I wonder if any one can help me. I'm sorry this is so long. I work in the catering industry as a chef. I have worked at the same place for over 10 year. I get paid by the hour and my hours are different every day and every week. But on average I do between 42 and 50 hours per week. My contract has never stated a set amount of hours so always assumed I'm on a zero hour contract. My days off have always been the same each week.

I have 4 children and my youngest son who is 6 is very poorly. So we have a lot of hospital appointment. My wife spends a lot of time traveling back and forth to hospital appointments. We have no family for support or friends so have no one to turn to for help. We always arrange appointments for on my days off so I can look after my other 3 children whilst my wife takes my youngest for appointments.

My employer knows this. I have always struggled with getting time off(taking Holiday). They always give favouritism to all the other staff as they are English and I'm French. The other Chefs can have any days off they want, and any holiday at any time they want and they always get the best hours and rota. The other staff all get more holiday than me too.

I am hard working, have never let them down, I have come in on my days off to work with out question, If some one else is sick and have even come in and worked when meant to be on holiday. I get nothing in return. I quiet often feel like they wall all over me and take advantage of me.

I never know what hours I'm working for the week until Sunday night for Monday onwards. So basically they give us no notice. My son was meant to have major skull surgery a few weeks ago I had told employer months before and booked holiday for then but they refused to give me the time off and forced me to take my holiday earlier. If I don't work I don't get paid and we need the money so cant afford to take unpaid leave. They also threatened me with sack if I did.So had to cancel surgery.

They now won't let me take any holiday until November. To add to this my son has a lot more appointments coming up which we had arranged for on my days off. But my employer this Sunday decided to change my days perminintly because one of the other English chefs wants wednesdays and Thursdays off and wants the best hours and so what they want they get. I should add all other staff including this chef don't have children. They are all young and single and just go out and get drunk on there days off.

My hours have been cut and now I'm stuck with horrible days off. My son had hospital appointments this Wednesday and Thursday and next Wednesday and Thursday. We have had to cancell them all. As have no one to look after children, it is not practical to drag 4 children to hospital appointments. My wife can't keep them quiet and talk to Drs at the same time.

We have at least 8- 10 more appointments that we are going to have to cancel as well and a lot of them we will not be able to re arrange as a lot of the dr and consultants My son sees only work Wednesdays and Thursdays.

I guess what I want to ask is do I have any rights. Is it fair the way my employer is treating me? Is there any thing I can do. I have thought about leaving and finding another Job, and have looked around but have not found any thing yet. The only reason I have stayed this long is that the pay is very good. and I know I won't get the pay I get now any where else.

I'm getting really fed up now. That every other English employee gets exactly what they want but when I ask it's always no. The is definite favortism.

Any advice much appreciated

Thanks in advance.

theoretica

Have you spoken to the hospital? There may be a creche that can take the other children during the appointments.

I hope others will advise about the work issues.

[Deleted User]

Stop helping them so much.

Start thinking would anyone else want the job after me?

Await any meeting the company arrange in which to let you go.

Do you have a HR dept? whilst generally on the employers side, they can back you up on the use it or lose it part, before any crazy ideas to sell future holiday entitlement so I'm afraid rights don't really have to come into it. Sadly all it takes is for say the client of the company you work for to make a complaint due to not understanding when someone is an employee they also come with some sort of expectation they may like holiday.

Still not worked out whether it is best to keep in employment or be out of it when it comes to such matters.

I've seen multi million pound companies to smaller companies all act appallingly over the holidays in recent years, how do we get to the situation of a company suggesting folk sell back their holiday leave and the likes as a way round managing better, that's what it boils down to. Ironically it was only the smaller company when I watched someone being terminated over a holiday issue, the employer ended up paying for them to go to other interviews (the person being terminated had only been in the job 6 months and ended up glad to be going if the employer couldn't accommodate them, I admired how strong on the subject they stood).

[Deleted User]

Thanks for your reply. I know some hospitals have crèches but this isn't really a option, first my other children are too old for crèche I think and secondly my other 3 children have special needs ( Autism, dyspraxia, ADHD, Hypermobility and Auditory Processing disorder. They would not cope with being left with strangers. My wife does not work as she gave up work to care for are children she is there full time carerer. Also crèche would not have been a option when my son was meant to have surgery as my wife needed to stay at hospital over night , crèches don't run at night and if I was working I would not finish until between 10.30 - 11.30pm. I could not then drive 2 hours 2 pick them up and look after them at night as have to be back at work by 7.30am for breakfast myself and my children would not get any sleep.

Where I work is a very small place and so does not have a HR department. I'm not sure what your implying about selling holiday entitlement. I never sold my holiday entitlement. I had not choice over the holiday thing. I'll explain that part again. I had booked the last 2 weeks of my holiday for when my son was due to go in to hospital. It was serious surgery that would leave my son in intensive care for a while. I booked it months before so gave plenty of notice.

5 weeks before I went to check my rota on the Sunday night and found I was not on rota, when I questioned them about it they told me that I was on holiday that week and the week after and had to take my holiday then. They gave me no choice. I told them I did not want to be on holiday and wanted to work as needed the holiday I had booked as my son was going in to hospital they did not care and forced me to take the holiday then.

Also my employer would not arrange any meeting If was going to sack me they would just tell me to go. They do nothing by the books. I did not say though that they are going to sack me I just said they threatened me with the sack.

Are you saying I have no rights at all and that it's perfectly fine and normal to treat staff like this. And there is nothing I can do.

I have been reading about working families and flexible working. Would putting in a request in writing to my employer for flexible working hours requesting Wednesdays and Thursdays off to be able to care for my child under section 80F Employment Rights Act 1996 be worth a try.

marliepanda

Your flexible working is a request and reading the rest of your post I doubt it will be granted

Employers can cancel holiday by giving 2x notice of the length of the leave, but was it ever approved? I can!!!8217;t tell. Employers can dictate when you take your leave as well.

Ozzuk

If they don't do things by the book then I can't see any chance of them approving a flex-request. By all means try! Sounds like a horrible situation, I can't see any proveable discrimination - sadly it sounds like they just don't value you as much as others. That isn't fair, but its not illegal (imo). Time to look for a new job, or your wife if she has better prospects.

kingfisherblue

Regarding your other children - presumably they are in school (which is when hospital appointments generally take place)? As you have three children with special needs, and another needing surgery, it would be wise to contact your Children with Disabilities team. They can arrange childcare for your family so that your wife can attend appointments. Your family might be able to receive Direct Payments, which means that you will be able to employ a childminder of your choice, at no cost to yourselves. The childminder would look after your children regularly, so they would get to know him/her. The childminder could then look after your other children whilst your wife attends hospital with your youngest. Your wife would also receive some respite during the week.

I know that this does not answer your employment queries, but I hope that it helps with the practical aspects for you. If you have a carer's centre in your area, they will be able to direct you to local support.

shortcrust

The easiest way to get better treatment from your employer is to get a better employer. Some jobs sound so awful it's hard to believe there aren't better options. It's really not normal to have different rules for French people!

I hope your son gets better soon. When he is my advice is to get job hunting.

z1a

Wow, don't know how You've put up with that for 10 years. You definitely need to be looking for another job.
If it was me I'd make sure I did something worth being sacked for once I had another job lined up.
I'd like to bet that they make a big thing about you working there when speaking to customers as well - "Oh yes, we have a top class French chef working for us."
I wish my written French was 10% as good as your English!

jobbingmusician

Yes, employers can dictate when you take your holiday. Yes, they can cancel booked holiday by giving sufficient notice. What I don't know, however, and wonder whether anyone else does....

How much notice does an employer have to give before imposing holiday? It doesn't sound at all fair to me that an employer can force you to take holiday at no notice (with the possible exception of times when they can't open premises because of snow, etc.)

You are entitled to (unpaid) leave to deal with family emergencies. You are entitled to 5.6 weeks' paid holiday each year including bank holidays (it is not clear to me whether you are getting this.)

You also have rights as a carer. See https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support/carers-rights-care-act-2014/ I suggest you contact the Carers Direct helpline on 0300 123 1053 for further advice about supporting your son. They may have the expertise which I am, sadly, lacking, about what your employer MUST do to support you.

FBaby

Two issues here, your job and your son attending his appointments. The second should be a priority. Cancelling is not helping the NHS nor your son. Some of your children must indeed be in school/nursery so that would mean 1 or 2 of them attending. If the issue is the time to allow to picking them up/dropping them, then you need to speak to the hospital and they will try to allocate the time that is best for you as much as they can. If that is not possible, then better to go with all 4 children then not at all as long as your wife explains the situation before. The health of your son is more important than anything.

As for your job, frankly, I'd be looking for another one. They are not treating you fairly, but nothing you've said sounds illegal so there is nothing you can do about it but find a kinder employer.

Could it be that once your son has surgery, you needing set days off is not so much of an issue any longer?