Unpaid breaks - employee rights

Shaun123

Apologies for starting a new thread if there is something similar I couldn’t see it.

Anyways I would appreciate any advice if anyone knows anything about this stuff ?

Basically I work in a gym and we currently have 3 local sites but are all part of the same team. However my site we get unpaid breaks and the other 2 paid breaks. Anyways today we have been told that we are no longer allowed to leave the site during our breaks even though they are remaining unpaid. Meanwhile if you work at the other sites your breaks are paid.

Maybe I’m just kicking off over it, however would anyone know if either 1. They can legally stop us from leaving the building when we aren’t being paid, or 2. They can give paid breaks to my colleagues in exactly the same role albeit at a different site.

Any advice/help would be appreciated.

elsien

It's your own time. You can spend it where you like.  

What's the reason they're not wanting you to leave the premises?  

oh_really

During the beak your not on their clock so given its not a high security establishment, I dont see how the could legitimately enforce this.

What's their agenda?

Shaun123

oh_really said:

During the beak your not on their clock so given its not a high security establishment, I dont see how the could legitimately enforce this.

What's their agenda?

They are saying it’s to reduce risk due to covid however we are a gym with members coming and going from 6-10 all day/night

elsien

They could potentially argue that you need to be there for safety reasons.  In which case yout have a counter argument that it's not really a break so they should pay you.

Shaun123

They pay every other member of staff for there breaks who do the same role as us at the other sites we have as well.

oh_really

You need to start pushing back. 
Consider all staff becoming union members, perhaps an issue to organise around. How many affected?

elsien

Shaun123 said:

They pay every other member of staff for there breaks who do the same role as us at the other sites we have as well.

Shaun123 said:

oh_really said:

During the beak your not on their clock so given its not a high security establishment, I dont see how the could legitimately enforce this.

What's their agenda?

They are saying it’s to reduce risk due to covid however we are a gym with members coming and going from 6-10 all day/night

Complete cobblers.
Rearrange the words jump running and take.  

Shaun123

oh_really said:

You need to start pushing back. 
Consider all staff becoming union members, perhaps an issue to organise around. How many affected?

There are 8 of us from our team that are affected.

Shaun123

elsien said:

Shaun123 said:

They pay every other member of staff for there breaks who do the same role as us at the other sites we have as well.

Shaun123 said:

oh_really said:

During the beak your not on their clock so given its not a high security establishment, I dont see how the could legitimately enforce this.

What's their agenda?

They are saying it’s to reduce risk due to covid however we are a gym with members coming and going from 6-10 all day/night

Complete cobblers.
Rearrange the words jump running and take.  

I agree, it’s just knowing how to tackle it.

Savvy_Sue

As already suggested, unionise. At the very least, work together not separately.