Expecting staff to arrange "cover" in order to take statutory leave?

[hottiebottie]

My DD has a temporary job at our local leisure centre, where she works as a lifeguard/pool attendant. The job is to tide her over until she starts university in September. She is on minimum wage (at the lower rate as she is only 18) yet seems to have become quite indispensable, being asked to help with paperwork, preparations for inspections, etc. She desperately needs to take a day off during the week to visit her university town to look at accommodation (accommodation officers not available at weekends), and while there has been no problem in the past with the occasional day off to go to a uni interview, for example, it now seems practically impossible for her to do this. The reason is that staff are expected to "arrange cover" if they are planning to take a day off. She is owed several bank holidays which she is not contractually obliged to work, as well as a couple of weeks annual leave pro rata, but unless someone else who does not normally work that day is willing to come and cover her shifts, it won't be possible. Now I was under the illusion that annual leave, bank holidays etc. are statutory entitlements and it is up to the managers to sort out rosters etc. provided they have been given sufficient notice of holiday requests. DD does not belong to a union so has no recourse in that direction.

Has anyone else ever encountered anything like this? I really think DD's employers are being completely unreasonable by expecting the granting of statutory entitlements to be dependent upon whether or not a staff member can persuade someone to come in and cover for them on a certain day. What happens if you want to take a two-week holiday, I have no idea!

Thanks in advance for any feedback/suggestions.

[GnocchiNineDoors]

I am trying to see this from both sides, so can I ask:
(1) what is the policy for booking annual leave - an example being my place of work which is three weeks notice
(2) how long in advance do they have their Rotas written up - eg, at ours, its two weeks ahead
(3) how long has your DD known she required this day off?

[hottiebottie]

Thanks, GnocchiNineDoors - intriguing name! - To answer (3), DD has known she needs to take a day off for a couple of weeks and originally asked for tomorrow, which has now been moved to Friday, which looks like being postponed again until next Wednesday...purely because of the cover problem. Regardless of how far in advance they ask, as far as I understand they are still responsible for arranging cover.

As far as the other two questions are concerned, I think the answer to (1) is "reasonable notice" but would need to see a copy of the contract as I'm not sure if this is defined. Don't know the answer to (2) - will have to ask DD when she comes back from work, later than usual as she has been asked to stay late to help get the paperwork ready for some sort of inspection tomorrow...

I'm hoping the fact that DD is working both bank holidays next week despite not being contractually required to do so will count for something, but not holding my breath.

[Gumby]

Does she want to come back to this job in the university holidays?
Because if not I'd be advising her to phone in sick

[KnockedUpMell]

I work in the nhs, and we are responsible / expected to arrange swaps for days on call if we wanted to take them as annual leave. This doesn't apply to a regular shift though, only long days/nights/weekends. Does she have to swap every shift she has for annual leave?

[AmazingBouncingFerret]

No advice but my old boss was a bugger for this.

He even did it when I phoned in sick once.
I think my responce was "piss off and do it yourself i'm poorly so going back to bed"

[GnocchiNineDoors]

Hmmm....well, in my office, if you want to take it an paid annual leave, you fill in a proper holiday form which then gets 'Yay'ed or 'Nay'ed. OR if you just want it as your scheduled day off, you let the rota person know well in advance.

I tell me staff that once the rota is done, if they want the day off, they have to come to me with a solution. It motivates them to let me know what they need in advance. Obviously I make exceptions for emergencies.

So they have told her a week on Wednesday is do-able....would she be prepared to wait til then? Similarly, could she ask someone not on shift that Wednesday if they could do her shift and she do one for them in return?

As she is not contractually obliged to work BHs she should be getting doouble pay and/or a day in leui.

[hottiebottie]

Gnocchi - She still isn't back so not sure about rota arrangements, but...it's all very well getting a day off in lieu for working a bank holiday, but not much good if you are never able to take it! Gumby, she has been offered a job during uni holidays but it's unlikely she'll be able to take it as she has to do work placements during the holidays as part of her course - but she doesn't want to go back anyway as she is completely fed up already! KnockedUpMell - these are regular shifts, Mon-Fri, 9-5. She has always been willing to work extra shifts at weekends in the past, but is less inclined to do so now.

As I said to her last night, "Welcome to the world of work."

[GnocchiNineDoors]

She needs to dig out her contract. If her boss prevents her from taking the leui day (and her contract will tell her whether she is entitled to it) then she should be paid for it at the end of the working year.

Surely if she is contracted to work Mon-Fri 9-5 then it does include BHs?

[hottiebottie]

Thanks for all your input folks, here's the outcome. DD didn't manage to get anyone to cover Wednesday or Friday of this week and next Wednesday was also starting to look doubtful, so I passed on Gumby's suggestion , but DD then made herself extremely useful during some important inspections over the last couple of days...and now it looks as though her line manager has managed to persuade someone to cover for her next Wednesday so that she can finally go and look at university accommodation. That's the last day before the online accommodation applications open but at least she'll be able to get it in promptly and stand a better chance of ending up in a place she likes, providing she can make her mind up quickly!

Haven't managed to dig out the contract yet, suspect it's buried somewhere in DD's room but I've found out that you have to give three weeks' notice of needing time off, sooner than that and you have to arrange your own cover. I suppose this would mean that rosters etc. are all sorted out three weeks in advance and requests for leave are handled by management at this stage. I don't know if DD is planning to take a break during the summer, but since her contract only runs until mid-September and her term starts at the beginning of October she will still have a couple of weeks anyway so might decide to take the money instead if that's an option.