Contract confusion

[mumsies9]

I have an entirely vague contract and answers in work are equally vague. Personnel were damn right rude and evasive.

My contract is called variable hours. In the contract it states that I am not guaranteed a minimum of hours but will be given notice of a rota a week in advance.
It does not state days. It does state the company requires flexibility.
I have asked management if I am able to turn down the odd day I cannot do and they have said no. They have also given me the option of a guaranteed minimum hours contract but if they contracted me above that I would still have to carry out all shifts up to six days.

Do i have any rights within the variable hours contract to say I will not work more than 5 days a week and I will not do a certain day. (They want me to fill out a flexible working form for this)
The manager stated the difference between a zero hours contract and my current one is that I am able to accrue holiday and get a mortgage.
With nothing in the contract about my availability or in the employee handbook am I just meant to accept 6 days a week every week?

[flowery]

Without seeing the actual wording it's obviously impossible to say definitively, but it doesn't sound as though that contract gives you the right to refuse hours, no.

If you regularly work the same hours every week eventually those hours would be contractual, i.e. if your employer want to retain absolute flexibility they need to actually use it. But sounds like they have it at the moment.

A genuine zero hours/casual contract should/would specify that you have the right to refuse.

Casual workers do accrue holiday, by the way, your manager is wrong there.

[MaverickSnoopy]

On flowery's last point about casual workers accruing annual leave. If your manager thinks/says this is the only difference between zero hours and variable hours and it is in fact not correct, then I wonder what the actual difference is between your contract and zero hours as it sounds pretty zero hours, but without the exact wording we can't say.

[ElinoristhenewEnid]

Maverick I suppose the only difference is that with zero hours you can refuse shifts but op has been told she cannot refuse shifts.

Sounds the worse of both worlds no guaranteed work and no flexibility for op, only for her employer.

[mumsies9]

It is fundamentally a zero hours contract - I have spoken to ACAS and read it out to them and they have said that it sounds like zero hours.

The contract literally just states that you will be given reasonable notice of shifts. You will not be guaranteed a minimum number of hours. There is nothing whatsoever about my side of that deal.

I already knew that holiday was a legal requirement, so her other reason was that I would be able to ensure i could get a mortgage......

I spoke to personell and his response was that they are obliged to give me hours (but I'm not guaranteed a minimum by the contract) and I am obliged to accept them. And then he had the cheek to ask in the most sarcastic tone "is all this because you can't get holiday"

I certainly do have the worst of both worlds. By rights they could give me 48hrs and I'd have to do them......