Hey guys, I'm in a bit of a bind. I work for a large retailer and they're only giving out 6 hour contracts, which I've been on for over a year, while working full time hours (35+ per week). I've just been on holiday for 2 weeks and it looks like they've only paid my contracted hours (6 per week) for holiday while senior guys on 35 hour contracts are getting 35 hours pay per holiday week. The company insists this is fair but a friend in a recruitment company said that after a year, if you're clearly working full time hours they have to pay more holiday hours. Does anyone have any legal clarification on this? Are they allowed to pay you virtually nothing for holiday if you're a long time full time worker on a lower contract??
I'm in a similar boat at a well known PC store, if you signed a contract then there's not much you can do other than to request a change of contract.
There is some legislation the treatment of temp staff where by if they've been effectively a full time employee they should be treated as such even if they are agency. At least there is in Scotland, I'm not lawyer but my wife has a law degree and talks at me at times... Go see CAB or a lawyer but I think your friend is right, if you've been on a pt contract whilst working ft for a long period of time you are a de-facto fte (full time employee) and should be treated as such.
When I did work experience for a recruitment company the recruitment concultants gave holiday pay by the number of hours the agency staff worked. I think that was because flexible workers are entitled to paid holidays in relation to the hours previously worked after a certain number of weeks working for the employer. Quite frankly it sounds fairly dodgy to me.
I always thought it was based on average hours worked over a twelve-week rolling period. I'd definitely talk to CAB or your union rep if you have one.
Sounds a bit dodgy to me, speak to CAB as they will be able to find exactly what you need. You should be entitled to full leave based on your actual worked hours though, as it is statutory leave for all workers.
Guys, you are amazing, thank you so much for your help. As it stands, I'm underpaid and I don't know why, so I have to wait for the boss to come back in on Friday to find out what's going on. They've done the whole 6-hour holiday contract thing to loads of people at work and I refuse to become their next victim. You wouldn't expect this from a massive electrical retailer.
yeah you would - tesco`s do the same for there flexitime staff - 7 1/2 hour contracts for ` dot com` and 10 hours for tills. makes that £5 a month for union membership seem a good idea
I've been retail management for years. It is now a common thing to dip this unfortunately. They say there is less people out of work, yrs there is but people on small hourly contacts his. Also until you work 37 and a half hours they will not pay time and a half for overtime. It's not right but with all the foreigners coming in and willing to do this it has made easier for retailers to do this.
I wish I got paid extra for overtime. I'm working 14 hours a day 6 days a week at the moment and I don't get a single, solitary groat extra for the effort.
It's worse for some Managers. Sometimes I work between 70 to 80 hours and my guys who aren't in Management come out with more than me as management get no overtime at all.
My wife has a couple of small shops where the staff are paid by ther hour on a zero-hours contract. When we looked at it the holiday entitlement accrues by the hours worked it's effectively 12% or so. See https://www.gov.uk/holiday-entitlement-rights and it has a calculator.
I'm not in too bad a position. Working 80-90 hours but I still make a little bit more than my team of temps because they're only on £8.50/h. But they come worryingly close in December
