Supermarkets employing more people but not giving out hours.

I once got a job in the warehouse of a well-known high street toy shop, which was advertised as fixed shifts, including 6am-2pm, which fitted around my partner's job, meaning that we'd always have one of us to do school drop-off and school pick-up. On day 1 of the induction, the manager told the group that if we weren't able to commit to total flexibility, meaning changing shift hours with less than 24 hours notice, we should leave the building right then. So I'd have been switched to 2pm until 10pm or 10pm until 6am.

I left.

No other choice, because we absolutely couldn't have committed to arranging after-school childcare for one or two days at a time with less than a day's notice. The worst thing was that I'd already cancelled another interview for a different job, because it was on the same day as the induction. I felt they'd completely wasted my time. If I'd been told at interview, I would have said not to progress my application further.

Where I work there can be similar issues with hours. I have my contract hours and used to be able to pick up extra, as did my colleagues- there were loads up for grabs! But as time has gone on, our responsibilities have increased exponentially, our morale has decreased, people go off sick for weeks at a time or longer, no one covers these shifts and there are apparently bans by regional management to give out any extra hours, at all for weeks on end. In fact in the run up to Christmas, when we were at our busiest, an instruction came down to store managers to request colleagues took time off unpaid. During a cost of living crisis. In the weeks before Christmas. Some people did, many didn’t know they had a choice apparently.

As for them messing up your son’s work hours, sounds like messy management- someone has swapped him/taken him off and not bothered to tell the duty manager for that shift. Who was then probably tamping about it. Glad he’d got that screenshot.

I cant get over the fact that @dancinfeet was disciplined for not being on call and yet not paid to be, They really do want it both ways

Agree, all the part time jobs I have had expected some level of covering other members of staff. It always seems to be expected that you will pick up the slack. Also supermarkets and the like are not so desperate for staff that they will just hire anyone. If someone has been long term unemployed or doesn't have any relevant experience then they are very unlikely to get an interview in my experience. The attitude that retail jobs are the bottom of the barrel is almost as infuriating as the attitude towards benefits claimants

Many many times i have tried to explain this on the benefits/tax credits threads where the benefit bashers keep wanging on about how you should get several part time jobs if you cant get a full time one. Many times i tried to explain that there would come a time when the jobs would clash Always fell on deaf ears.

And as for disciplining you for not keeping yourself available?? An employer who does this is behaving like a fucking pimp. There i said it!

a lot of retail companies like to have plenty of staff on minimal hours but who are available any day/ time and at a moments notice to cover holidays/ sickness and other absences. I had to give up my 12 hrs a week retail job as the management disciplined me for not being available on a certain day because I was working my other job that has set days and times and was 20 hrs a week. I worked fixed days and times for them also, but they wanted me to cover someone on sick leave on a saturday which was not my normal working day for them- I offered to cover other shifts including sunday instead but they expected me to not go in to my other job and be available that saturday.
They then changed my permanent days and times that I had worked for five years to clash with my other job, essentially forcing me into quitting working for them.

We survive because we are not the ones paying the bills. Most are either working around children or are young and still live with parents etc. Just to clarify. We are not all dirt poor, though I'm sure some must be. I have a mortgage and a car etc.

Exactly and there is the my post from yesterday about not being able to save for a pension. You just cant. With all the threats about there not being a state pension later on what are they expected to do. We already have retired pensioners who are homeless or facing homelessness on the streets cos they cant afford to pay their rent and could never buy their own home or save for a private pension because they were in these types of jobs!

They don't want to give more hours, they prefer having more people on fewer hours. They had to give everyone a pay rise recently and they want to claw that money back by cutting labour hours every month. I work for a big supermarket and I know for a fact this is true.
However, at my store they don't change staff hours or cut them, you have your hours and that's that. They get around it by offering no overtime and not employing new people unless they can help it. There used to be lots of overtime, but not since the minimum wage increased.

Expecting someone to be available, Being on call without paying them to be on call.

There is a word for someone who thinks they practically own somebody else and its not a very nice one.

And customers moan that you need more staff!

Our son had problems at McDonalds while he was at college, sometimes he’d go in and find that his shift had been cancelled and he hadn’t been notified, other times he’d be called to ask why he hadn’t shown up for a shift when his rota stated he was off. Rotas were changed and pinned on the staff room notice board when he wasn’t in work and he’d therefore be unaware of any changes made before his next shift as the online rota wouldn’t be changed.

Unfortunately he was on a zero hours contract and went from June until September with barely any shifts because employees who’d been away at uni returned home for the Summer and were given the majority of the hours.

Our other son worked at another McDonalds and had a totally different experience, he worked there p/t through sixth form and uni and actually took a year out after finishing uni to work there full time before training to be a teacher. He often said that the one his brother had worked at had an awful reputation for how staff were treated.

He left after the Summer of few shifts and little pay and got a job at Tesco and was treated well. He was contracted to work 16 hours around his college course and usually did extra, although his college hours were always respected. He really enjoyed working there.

I'm on apart time contract.
I'm constantly reminded I'm only contracted for X amount of hours.
When they're short staffed and begging for cover, I remind them I'm only contracted for X hours.
Ours runs permanently short of staff to save money, frequently at a dangerously low number.
I thought working for one of the major supermarkets would be a better branch of retail.
Nope. Still money grabbing, couldn't give a shit about staff or working conditions, arseholes.

Never, ever trust a retail (or any, really) manager who tells you "well you'll be contracted for X, but I promise you'll always be able to do at least Y hours every week".

They are liars, who are aware that they're manipulating people into shit jobs.

They're the same ones who'll turn around and harangue staff who don't take on every bit of overtime going, because they have this weird thing called "a life outside the shop".

It's the same at the supermarket I work at. They hire people on 16 hour contracts but expect them to be available for 40 hours a week as and when. Interesting point about the NI contributions! I've been trying to figure out what the benefit was. At our place everyone is actually quite happy just doing their 16 hours, so when shifts do become available no one wants them and the managers complain that they can't get cover 😂

Only knew someone who worked for Iceland about 10 years ago. Then they only did contracts for 7 hours a week. Anything over that is overtime.

Problem is if employees book time off or on the sick, they only get 7 hours pay.

It sounds like a crap manager. DD 18 has occasionally had this with a different manager on at McDonald’s - usually her manager is very good. Another thing that sometimes happens is she goes for a shift and they send them home early losing pay. On a positive he’s learning vital skills like screen shots and arguing his case. I’d tell him to look elsewhere.

It's absolutely ALL about keeping employer NI and tax at a nil rate., it's scummy.

1 employee on 40 hrs they have to pay full rate. 4 employees on 10rs is Nothing or v small amount each.

Shouldn't be permitted.

That's why supermarkets employ the majority of their workers on pt contracts keeps ni contributions to the minimum and they will fuck about with Hours.

I used to work for a supermarket. As did both DC before they went to uni. They definitely used to take advantage of the youngsters.

I remember one Christmas DS was asked to fill in an availability sheet for when he'd be available to work over the festive period. We had plans on Boxing Day so he said he want available that day. So of course what shift did they give him? All day on Boxing Day.

I'm pretty certain his useless manager took a punt on him not being able to speak up for himself and would just do it. He refused to do it, saying what was the point of filling in an availability sheet of they were just going to ignore it?

It's the opposite situation to your DS OP, but supermarkets do seem to exploit younger staff members and bank on them not kicking up a fuss. Many supermarket middle managers are paid on results so they will take advantage of people to achieve their targets too.

I call this being on call without being paid to be

@JenniferBooth That's not how it works sadly. They seem to expect you to be available to work on any day at any time and that is reflected in the contract wording. In his last retail job, DS mostly had the same days off but it did change on some weeks. Likewise his start time was 6pm but this could alter to 5pm or even 4pm depending on the business needs. They were pretty good though if you requested a specific shift off though - but that will depend on the manager.

Back in the Stone Age, I worked for one of the big supermarkets for a bit. The managers were not exactly cream of the crop (no shade, clearly neither was i), and some of them were genuinely thick but thought they were God's gift to retail.

25 years on, nothing has changed and supermarkets are still being run by absolute imbeciles. If I were you, OP, I'd tell your lad to apply to Maccies.