Unpaid reporting to work early

Savvy_Sue

Grumpy_chap said:

When you all (how many?) meet at the coffee shop, does the company provide / buy you all breakfast?  I was just wondering whether the company could spin this as a team morale boosting exercise.  Obviously, it is not working like that in your case, but that could be their aim.

And then you're into the treatment of trivial expenses and benefits ... taxable or not? 

Undervalued

arctic_ghost said:

Inform them you're an adult not a primary school pupil and you intend starting work appropriately attired in accordance with their dress code policy and in time for your shift and wages starting.

What has been the issue?

In which case the agency would probably tell the OP that in future they will assign work to those that are will to comply with their terms!

The agency are not doing anything unlawful here and if the OP doesn't like their terms they are free to sign up with a different agency. If the agency can't get suitable staff they will have to re-think their terms but that is a business decision for them to make.

I can't imagine the agency are doing this for fun or just to annoy the OP. Presumably they have had problems in the past with staff that are unacceptably turned out for their clients. The OP may well not be one of them in which case I can see why they may feel aggrieved. However I suspect their only options are to go along with it or find another agency or directly employed job.

mumf

my wife is a union rep.I showed her this,and she raised her eyebrows,and stated that it is wrong at every level. For a start,some kind of uniform ‘ inspection’ should not be done in a public place ; this strays into the area of personal dignity. Also,being required to be at work earlier than stated shift times ,for a work related issue is employment ,that should be paid.She mentioned taking pay below minimum wage too. Her question was “ is this person unionised? Because if they are,the union will have a field day!”

in my own job,I have to clock in. The boss made it plain that clocking in early is not overtime. That comes at the end of the shift. 

[Deleted User]

mumf said:

my wife is a union rep.I showed her this,and she raised her eyebrows,and stated that it is wrong at every level. For a start,some kind of uniform ‘ inspection’ should not be done in a public place ; this strays into the area of personal dignity. Also,being required to be at work earlier than stated shift times ,for a work related issue is employment ,that should be paid.She mentioned taking pay below minimum wage too.

Does she realise the "employer" is an employment agency? How would the statutory recognition process work if involving the CAC and what would the bargaining unit look like?
I guess most employment agencies would be pretty adept at dodging trade union bullets coming their direction.

@mumf if she hasn't already done it I suggest she looks at TUC education courses, they are free to her...https://www.tuc.org.uk/TUCcourses

Undervalued

mumf said:

my wife is a union rep.I showed her this,and she raised her eyebrows,and stated that it is wrong at every level. For a start,some kind of uniform ‘ inspection’ should not be done in a public place ; this strays into the area of personal dignity. Also,being required to be at work earlier than stated shift times ,for a work related issue is employment ,that should be paid.She mentioned taking pay below minimum wage too. Her question was “ is this person unionised? Because if they are,the union will have a field day!”

in my own job,I have to clock in. The boss made it plain that clocking in early is not overtime. That comes at the end of the shift. 

Sorry but given that this is via an agency that is the only bit of your wife's comments that are correct! However even that is a moot point as the OP has confirmed that the extra time does not take them below the NMW.

Even if the OP was directly employed and something similar was happening, whilst it might be "wrong at every level" (whatever that subjective phrase means), I struggle to see that anything unlawful would be happening.