Employment issues - any advice please?

[MycatsaPirate]

My DD is 19. She has worked part time for McDonalds for over 2 years. She has been at 6th form and is now at university but does shifts whenever she comes home for holidays.

She has a torn rotator cuff in her shoulder at the moment and movement is limited as well as preventing her doing things like mopping floors, cleaning/scrubbing as it's very painful. She is waiting to see a shoulder specialist and physio.

She was in work two days ago and put onto drive through so she was taking orders and money. No issues. She has told work that she has this injury and that's why they sheduled her for that. However they requested she get a note from the doctor stating she has limited capability for work.

The doctors charged her £17.50 as she has not been off sick but she has the sick note and took it in today when she started her shift at 2pm. They put her onto lobby on her own which means clearing tables, mopping, emptying bins and carrying boxes. She lasted until 5pm until she was in so much pain she rang me in tears. She spoke to the manager who said 'what do you want me to do about it?' She suggested they move her to a role where she is not having to physically use her shoulder such as tills/drive through or making drinks. They sent her home. I had to collect her as she is in so much pain she cannot drive.

I'm bloody fuming. She is now £17.50 out of pocket and they have said they won't schedule her for at least two weeks now. Why on earth did they request the partially fit to work note if they were going to blatantly ignore it?

She/we are going to phone head office in the morning and at least request she gets refunded the money for the sick note but also ask if that's their policy on staff with injuries.

Anything got any advice please? She has been there over two years and hasn't had any time off except just before her A levels when she needed study time. She has covered shifts at the last minute and worked all sorts of unsociable hours.

[PersianCatLady]

It sounds as if there is no suitable jobs for her to do because she is in so much pain.

Why didn't she just take time off sick??

[MycatsaPirate]

There are plenty of jobs she can do. She just needs to not be emptying bins or mopping which aggravate the shoulder.

She can't afford to take time off sick, she's a student and working in the summer is her main income.

We are going to phone Head Office this morning. Why on earth they asked her to get (and pay) for a doctors note explaining what she couldn't do and then ignored it I don't know.

[PersianCatLady]

There are plenty of jobs she can do. She just needs to not be emptying bins or mopping which aggravate the shoulder
I don't think that it will go down too well if you start trying to manage McDonald's staff rota for them.

I am puzzled as to why they didn't give her one of the many other jobs that she could have done when they knew that she had a bad shoulder.

When the manager assigned her to working in the lobby, why didn't your DD remind the manager of her injury and ask to be given other duties instead?

[Lucysky2017]

Is she a part time employee under PAYE? And is she on some kind of zero hours employed contract?

[MycatsaPirate]

When she turned up for work yesterday she was fully expecting to be put onto drive through or tills as they a) knew of her shoulder injury and b) had asked for a sicknote confirming that she had limited capability. When she got there they told her she was working lobby and that the other person who was meant to be working with her had gone home sick. So she couldn't even limit what she was doing by sharing the work load with someone else.

She is on PAYE and gets holiday/sick pay. She is on a zero hours contract but she had work scheduled for two weeks.

Bizarrely a different manager rang her today and asked her why the hell she hadn't turned up for her shift!! She explained what had happened yesterday and she was 'oh ok' and that was it. Apparently the manager who rang her today was 'stressed' because they were short staffed.

The words 'piss up' and 'brewery' spring to mind.

She rang head office and they have told her to go into the store and speak to a manager and get it sorted. Very helpful. The managers don't even bloody communicate with each other never mind the staff. I will go in with her on Saturday if needs be.

[PersianCatLady]

I will go in with her on Saturday if needs be
Can she not sort it out on her own??

[JustMumNowNotMe]

You need to take a huge step back OP, she is 19, not a child, so it's massively inappropriate for you to be getting involved like this!

[BritInUS1]

Please don't go with her - she is 19, she is an adult, she needs to sort this out herself ! x

[Unihorn]

It's nothing to do with you, or head office. She needs to speak to her line manager and possibly accept that she will have to take the time off sick if they can't accommodate her.

[MycatsaPirate]

When I say go with her I mean, go and stay in the car! I wouldn't go in with her.

And all I've done is posted asking for advice. She has no idea of her rights and that's all I'm trying to find out.

She is going in to speak to them but they have scheduled her for a shift next week on drive thru which should be ideal for her at the moment.

[Runlovingmummy81]

Might be worth giving acas a quick call. They're helpline number is pretty good xx

[scaryclown]

I suspect manager is a cunt, found out what she couldn't do and put her on it. Too many managers in fast food and coffee chains think being nasty shows managerial ruthlessness. . I've been there.. A useless dick of a manager found out what I wasn't trained in, asked me to do it with no instructions then enjoyed telling me I 'should know'.

Obviously good management wouldn't do this.
I bet he/she also has pals who are always on preferred jobs.
Talk to proper manager not just shift /duty manager and get gim/her telt.

[Tobuyornot99]

She needs to go into the restaurant and speak to the manager herself. At 19 she should be more than capable of this. If she has a zero hour contract I'd be careful about telephoning head office and being seen as a PITA as it may well be easier for them to not give her any more shifts than deal with helicopter Mum. Let her sort it out herself OP.

[scaryclown]

Also as she has clearly informed them, they are liable under health and safety regulations. I suspect these are very clear in macdonalds you should never be expected to do work that can harm you, and are required to ask for assistance with lifting that is beyond your capability. Get the macd's guidelines from her welcome pack and use that as motivation if there is resistence

[PersianCatLady]

accept that she will have to take the time off sick if they can't accommodate her
I can't understand why she hasn't done this already.

From McDonald's point of view, if a member of staff isn't able to do the work that is required of them then they need to take time off sick.

I don't really understand why the OP's DD didn't just do this in the first place.

Obviously she didn't want to not get paid but if she isn't fit to do the work that they expect her do then that isn't their problem.

Also it is not up to either the OP or her DD to decide that she will go into work and then pick and choose what tasks she will do.

[MycatsaPirate]

I am definitely NOT a helicopter mum! I haven't done anything for her except post on here asking for advice.

She has spoken to head office. She has spoken to her store manager. She is going in to see them.

As for 'picking and choosing', that is most definitely NOT the case with DD. She is quite happy, when fit and well, to do whatever is required of her from drive thru, tills, taking orders to cars or cleaning the toilets.

They are short staffed most of the time and she has regularly been called at the last minute to cover someone else's shift. On very few occasions has she said no. Even the area manager has praised her work ethic.

So it's not a case of picking and choosing but rather still making the effort to go into work and asking to be given work she is capable of doing right now while she rests her shoulder.

[user1492287253]

both my dds have worked for mcds.
i would like to say im suprised but i cant.
they are dicks

[PersianCatLady]

Making the effort to go into work and asking to be given work she is capable of doing right now while she rests her shoulder
You aren't seeing it from McD's point of view.

Whilst you think that your DD is being admirable by turning up to work and trying her best, they won't see it that way.

Quite often if you can't do the job that you are employed to do because you are sick or injured then you don't go in to work.

You say that your DD has spoken to head office, what did they say??

[MycatsaPirate]

Head office told her to go back into work. So clearly no one knows what the bloody policy is on only being partially fit for work but not actually too sick to work.

user The more I hear, the more I feel despondent if this is the way our youngsters are being taught about the working world. Shit doesn't even begin to cover how they are treated. DD was sexually assaulted by another staff member when she was 17 in there and I did go in then and kick up a fucking huge fuss but apparently he had apologised so it was best if they all moved on from it. Because every 17 year old girl loves a 60 odd year old man trying to pull their trousers down. To her credit she went back but none of the girls in there would go near the guy. He is a creep but thankfully long gone now.

[PersianCatLady]

DD was sexually assaulted by another staff member when she was 17 in there and I did go in then and kick up a fucking huge fuss but apparently he had apologised so it was best if they all moved on from it
I thought there was more to this than your DD's current issues.

What you have described here is absolutely appalling and you were right to kick up a fuss.

Did you contact the police about this man??

[MycatsaPirate]

No, I didn't. DD didn't want to and she is fine with things now. It's just typical of McD's policies though. They keep on staff regardless of behaviour or attitude. One of the girls phones in sick or just goes home all the time leaving DD on her own covering both of them.

[user1492287253]

my dds both had separate issues, one in London, one in the home counties.
issues included
sexual comments from managers
not being paid for hours worked.
starting procedure not followed so wrong tax codes taking money out of the already minimum wage. this never got sorted out and eventually got a tax refund a year later.
arriving at work on time to be declared late because they were quiet and didnt want to pay .
both dds learned a very valuable lesson though. they both learned that they were worth more, could not change it and left. they went to work in Boots. better pay snd perks and the managers were actually nice.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Having had a torn rotator cuff myself I would think the movement to use the tills and take money, pass things through a hatch would actually be more painful than mopping. So I am afraid to me it does look a bit like she wants to pick and chose what to do.

I would let your adult daughter deal with her employment issues and just have a hot bath ready for her when she gets in from her shifts.

[MycatsaPirate]

user that is awful. The way some people treat our youngsters in their first jobs is appalling.

allthebest With all due respect her GP told her not to lift or do anything heavy/repetitive movements (which includes using a huge mop to mope a large floor area) and she knows her own pain levels.

Anyway, yesterday she got a phone call from the new Store Manager. Called her in for a meeting. Asked her if she actually wanted her job and DD said yes, explained what had occurred. Store manager had no idea, didn't even know there was a sick note (which had been place in DD's personnel file and not given to the SM). SM read her sick note and placed her on tills and drinks and DD worked her shift and then did an hour extra to cover for someone else being late in and to ensure someone else got their break.

All is fine. SM seems to be reasonable and has apparently been coming in and sorting out the staffing issues - lots of no shows, people ringing off sick repeatedly and has been issuing warnings and generally sorting out the staff.

[PersianCatLady]

All is fine. SM seems to be reasonable and has apparently been coming in and sorting out the staffing issues
I am glad that everything has worked out for her now and it seems that in the future the new SM will run the place in a much better way.