New job but extras added to the contract.

Kit1

Hi am after your thoughts and advice.  My OH applied for a new job and after jumping through lots of hoops he has been offered the job.  It has taken several weeks to get the job offer as first they had an informal getting to know you interview/chat, then they sent him some reports to read through and give his views on them, then they sent him an application to complete (they already had a copy of his CV) and then he had another chat followed by another interview.  He was offered the job on Monday and he went to the office today for a kind of induction and was told that a contract had been emailed to him.  We have just looked at the contract and they have added lots of things they were not discussed.  He is expected to travel for this job, which is OK but we are not talking local as some of the jobs are over 3 hours away so that would be 6 hours driving time and then he has to survey the building. making notes etc which could take a couple of hours then he needs to write up his report, so lets say all in all he works 12 hours but his contract is only for 8 hours a day so the extra 4 hours will not be paid as overtime and time in leu will be at their discretion.  Sorry for the long post but l was wondering is this he norm now and would you be willing to work extra hours every week for nothing as l think he will be doing almost double the contracted hours for the same pay so instead of say £10 per hour he will be getting £5 per which wasn't what was advertised.  TIA

penners324

I would thinkva building surveyor would need to travel round to survey buildings. Are they paying mileage and expenses for this?
What other addional things are in the contract you don't like?

Sandtree

New job with same employer or with a new company? Presumably he will be an employee not a contractor?

What leads you to believe the site visit and report have to be done on the same day?
What happens if the job is 10 minutes from home instead of 3 hours away? Based on your calcs that would be a 6.3 hour day, whats he expected to do with the other 1.7 hours?

In my world its often the case that work comes in peaks and troughs so you get days where you can clock off almost 2 hours early and days you will stay 3 hours late... obviously in the round you hope it balances out.

Thrugelmir

Some jobs expect flexibility. That's the nature of the work/business. From what you've written the company appears to have gone through a thorough and comprehensive interview process. If the job doesn't work out then move on. The best companies to work for are rarely rigid 9-5 outfits.  People entering with that mentality rarely survive in the longer term. 

Kit1

Thank you for your replies.  We fully understand that you need to be flexible but from what he was told today was that they are expecting more work to come in and every day will be busy and his contract says that extra hours will be expected and there will be no extra pay.  Looking at his first week it looks like he will be expected to work almost 30 hours but is only going to be contracted for 24 hours and the next week looks very similar.  The company is expecting work to increase week on week and if it picks up the job will then become full-time.  So from the sound of things it doesn't look like they are going to be flexible.

getmore4less

Will it take the pay below min wage?
Is the pay rate typical for this type of job to take account of the extra

Contracted for 3 days a week then only work 3 days a week unless paid for the extra days.

What has he given up for a part time job?

[Deleted User]

It looks like they want him working full time hours, on a part time contract and pay - if he can afford it, he should turn down the offer and look for other jobs.

Dox

Kit1 said:

Hi am after your thoughts and advice.  My OH applied for a new job and after jumping through lots of hoops he has been offered the job.  It has taken several weeks to get the job offer as first they had an informal getting to know you interview/chat, then they sent him some reports to read through and give his views on them, then they sent him an application to complete (they already had a copy of his CV) and then he had another chat followed by another interview.  He was offered the job on Monday and he went to the office today for a kind of induction and was told that a contract had been emailed to him.  We have just looked at the contract and they have added lots of things they were not discussed.  He is expected to travel for this job, which is OK but we are not talking local as some of the jobs are over 3 hours away so that would be 6 hours driving time and then he has to survey the building. making notes etc which could take a couple of hours then he needs to write up his report, so lets say all in all he works 12 hours but his contract is only for 8 hours a day so the extra 4 hours will not be paid as overtime and time in leu will be at their discretion.  Sorry for the long post but l was wondering is this he norm now and would you be willing to work extra hours every week for nothing as l think he will be doing almost double the contracted hours for the same pay so instead of say £10 per hour he will be getting £5 per which wasn't what was advertised.  TIA

As you say, your OH has jumped through lots of hoops to get this far. Contracts often contain more detail than whatever was covered during the recruitment process, simply because interview time is better used for things other than fine detail. 

Anyone of reasonable seniority should expect to work 'extra hours every week for nothing' - goes with the territory. The important thing is to ensure that it doesn't get completely out of hand. Perhaps his next step is to talk to the employer about the contract and ensure that there is a clear understanding on both sides of what is and isn't going to happen. 

Kit1

[Deleted User] said:

It looks like they want him working full time hours, on a part time contract and pay - if he can afford it, he should turn down the offer and look for other jobs.

That is just what we are thinking too.  The were only offering part-time to begin with with a view to increase hours at a later date.  It looks like they want him to travel all over (this wasn't discussed at any point) and be there by 9am each time no matter how far away the building is that he needs to inspect.  I think he may need to look elsewhere too.