Being forced to work & Rights to time off

[Yellotea1984]

I work in an industry where the working week is Mon-Sat. My contracted hours, leave entitlement, sick pay and pension are all on a Mon-Sat basis.
Some Sundays we are rostered to work and it is classed as overtime and we receive enhanced pay. The problem is if you want the day off, someone else has to do your shift. We are not allowed to use our leave entitlement to "book" Sundays off, we cannot shift swap for another day with a colleague and you are not allowed to find your own cover (ie a friend offers to do your shift) as our rostering department uses them however they wish, meaning they could get them to cover someone else's shift instead.
It basically means that there isn't a system for getting a Sunday off and the company then states you are "contractually obliged to work."
The system is unjust as people can apply for their Sundays to be covered on a permanent basis and some colleagues haven't worked any of their booked Sunday shifts in almost 15 years.
Please help as I'm pretty sure this contravenes some human right.

[LIZS]

sorry don't understand how are some not working their Sunday shifts if you can't change it or find a replacement ? Sunday is either part of the working week (as for retail, hospitality, care industries for example) or not . Some employees may have contracts which state no Sunday working though. What is it that you want ?

[Yellotea1984]

Sunday is not classed as part of our working week, hence why we are not allowed to used leave to book the day off. But the only way of not working is rosters covering it with volunteers. If no one volunteers and rosters don't get it covered for you then we are being forced to work. There are colleagues who refuse point blank to do Sundays and so rosters cover their shifts first, meaning up to now nobody has been disciplined. But when something comes up and you need the Sunday there is no transparency to ensure everyone gets a fair chance.

[Yellotea1984]

We all have the same contract.

[LIZS]

Surely if you aren't contracted to work Sundays , you cannot be made to work it except by mutual agreement (for which you receive enhanced pay) The contract either includes for example one Sunday in 4 or not . Can you ask ACAS for the legal situation? .

[Yellotea1984]

A colleague has completed all the necessary documentation to request they cover a Sunday, the Sunday wasn't covered however colleague didn't turn up. The company is now trying to discipline this individual. The union say it is a grey area and are reluctant to get involved and nobody else seems interested.
Apparently because it says in our contract that if the Sundays aren't covered we must work them, the company think this is correct. Just because there's is a vague clause in a contract, surely doesn't make it legal if it contravenes a persons human rights to be able book days off.

[yoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyo]

Do you work for the railway?

[Yellotea1984]

[LadySybilLikesCake]

I'm pretty sure that you can opt out of Sunday working for religious reasons I'll have to double check though so don't quote me on it.

[LadySybilLikesCake]

www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_rights_at_work_e/basic_rights_at_work.htm#h_sunday_working

[LadySybilLikesCake]

//www.gov.uk/sunday-working

[yoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyoyo]

I had a similar thing with my company. They were insistent i had to get the shift covered, ignoring the fact it was not part of my working week.
So in the end i just notes myself as n/a for a sunday on the draft rosters, didnt mention anything to my manager. I was still put on the final roster as coming in, so i just didn't turn up. My manager called me a few hours after my shift started ( obviously didnt dare call at 6am on a sunday, the time my shift actually started ) i ignored her phone call and went in as normal on moday and no one said a work to me!
This became a regular thing, say once a month. I wouldnt go in, they phoned me, I ignored them and monday it was as if it was all a dream!

I have worked for 3 different tocs and i have not been forced to work a sunday.

[flowery]

Assuming the shop workers Sunday rules don't apply, if your contract says you can be required to do overtime on a Sunday, then that will be the case. You say the relevant clause is "vague", can you give us the wording?

In terms of booking holiday, it is not against your "human rights" to not let you book overtime days off as holiday. You are entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday a year but you are not entitled to take it whenever you like. Your employer is allowed to impose rules about when holiday can be taken and also to refuse any individual holiday request.

It doesn't sound like a good system. If someone works regular days and also sometimes extra days as overtime, it is usual (and good practice) not to schedule them in for overtime when they've booked their normal working days off. I think you should be pressurizing the union to push for a fairer more transparent system.

[Yellotea1984]

It's not that we are unable to get the leave granted, I fully understand that if the allowance is full then I cannot take my leave "whenever I wish" but the issue here is that we can't use leave to ensure time off on a day that isn't part if the working week and are being forced to work. The contract states
although there is a contractual requirement to work rostered Sundays, employees may ask for their Sundays to be covered. If rosters exhaust all opportunities to get the shift covered then the employee concerned will be required to work.
I thing the work "required" should be changed to forced as like I said, should no one volunteer then there is no allowance for booking of leave on Sundays and the employee has no choice. Surely this isn't right?

[LIZS]

But surely if the contractual working week is Mon - Sat they cannot just roster anyone for Sunday except by prior agreement, which is over and above the contract and paid accordingly. You can' t use any AL against Sundays because the allowance is allocated based on the hours of the official working week. If you do work a Sunday do you still work 5 of the other days or have another day off in lieu?

[prh47bridge]

That looks perfectly clear to me. Your normal working week is Mon-Sat. That is when you take your annual leave. You are also contractually required to work rostered Sundays as overtime, for which you get enhanced pay. You can ask for your Sunday shift to be covered by someone else but if they can't get cover you must work the rostered shift.

The reason you can't use your annual leave for Sundays is because it is not part of your normal working week. And if you are being required to work on Sunday because they couldn't find cover for you, taking it as holiday isn't going to magically produce cover. So even if you could take annual leave on Sundays they would still be perfectly within their rights to say no to any request.

As Flowery says, you should think about getting the union to push for a better system. But on the information you have posted no human rights have been contravened and no laws have been broken.

[flowery]

"But surely if the contractual working week is Mon - Sat they cannot just roster anyone for Sunday except by prior agreement, which is over and above the contract and paid accordingly."

The contract is very clear that working Sundays on a roster is part of the terms and conditions of the OPs employment, and that although she can ask for her Sunday to be covered elsewhere, if it can't be, she has to work. If the contract made no mention of Sundays, or indeed of any extra days, overtime or varying days, then you would be correct that a Sunday would need prior agreement as it would be over and above the contract. But that isn't the case. The OPs contractual obligation is clear.

OP why do you think the word "required" should be replaced by "forced"? It would make no difference to the meaning, which is that if cover can't be found, you have to work your Sunday.