Is my daughter being taken advantage of??

[tribeleader]

My 18 year old daughter completed NVQ2 in hair and beauty in July. She was working in a salon on saturdays/sundays and doing training day on thursday and was thne taken on fulltime once qualified

She works 5 days one week and 4 days the next, starting at 8.45am and finishing 7.30 pm but some nights later mon to fri, saturdays are 8.45 - 6pm but usually gets out closer to 7pm. She gets £500 per month!

She was taken on, as is practice, as a junior, with a view of her proving herself for a bit before she is classed as a stylist, even though she is qualified. There are other juniors, one 16 straight from school on the same money but they are not qualified yet and are training on the job

She also gets no real breaks, lunch has to be eaten on the premises when there is time. Some days, she doesn't get lunch until 3/4pm. She is often called back to shampoo when she is eating

The manager favours boys, so my daughter is the only one who does the cleaning, she likes cleaning but gets cross when she is expected to do it and gets a bollocking if she hasn't cleaned, when the manager never asks the boy juniors to clean

She is feeling really down about it all and wants to leave but she doens't want to leave without a job to go to and it isn't that easy to get one

I think she needs to find out her rights and suggested she goes to CAB

Anyone know of the laws about minimum wage? Does it matter that she is down as training, even though she is qualified? what are the rules regarding breaks and hours worked? I really want to get her a better deal but want to get the facts right first

[Julezboo]

From quick calculations she should be earning £1049.40 a month! Thats from a quick google on minimum wage working 10 hours a day!!

She is being exploited!

[tribeleader]

That's what I thought, not sure if training is covered by minimum wage though and they have used a loophole

Anyone else know?

[ParisFrog]

Can she ask to be re-classed, i.e. not on training? I don't think training jobs have minimum wages - I've done some placements before where we worked our butts off for free!

My feeling is that as long as she doesn't challenge it, she won't get an improvement. She needs to show the manager that she knows she is worth more than 16 year olds with no qualifications.

[tribeleader]

She is so scared of being sacked she won't say anything at the moment. That's why I suggested she found out her rights and the law

Another thing, she had one day off sick a couple of weeks ago and was sent home sick on another day, they have docked 2 days wages and she booked a day off weeks in advance to a family event and was docked a days wages then too. Can they do that?

[ChopsTheDuck]

can she not look for a job elsewhere?

It sounds crap, and even fighting it sounds like she is unlikely to get anywhere as she is still technically employed as a trainee.

[ChopsTheDuck]

trainees don't get minimum wage, or holiday pay.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

My stepson is a trainee hairdresser - for the first year he was on a training wage of £90 per week. He did get holiday pay though.

After the first year he was then getting put up to minimum wage. As soon as the time came for them to do this he got laid off as the hairdresser said they couldn't afford minumum wage, they then took on another trainee at £90 per week.

It's a mugs game. Poor stepson has not got to either find another placement or go to college whilst working in another job. Poor trainees get treaten like dirt ime.

[flowerybeanbag]

Have a look here about who is entitled to the minimum wage, and here about who is not. If she is an apprentice she won't be while she is under 19 and/or in the first year of her apprenticeship.

Read here about apprenticeships. Apprentices do get some holiday pay by the way.

Calling someone a 'trainee' isn't a get-out for employers to avoid paying properly by the way. As the link says, proper apprenticeships don't qualify for the minimum wage, but an employer can't just take on someone, call them a 'trainee' and pay them a pittance.

Read here about rest breaks.