To think we shouldn't have to work the day before Christmas Eve?

Check your contract. But your work base is usually stated. In retail it somwtimes says about travel to other locations. But usually something about expenses is mentioned if so.

If you are working 6 hours above your normal working hours becsuse of travel if you are on minimum wage this would potentially take you under Nmw And be illegal so check it. If the 23rd was out of your leave allowance then explain its too late now for you to change plans and therefore the 23rd will be taken as leave or unpaid. Is it really a company you want to progress in anyway.

What’s black eye Friday??

I do think an arrival time of 9am is unreasonable for people who are driving 3 hours. If it’s a few speeches and some sausage rolls, how are they going to fill a day between 9am-6pm?? If they’d said arrive at midday and leave at 5pm then fair enough. It’s a working day. And no travel expenses paid either. Surely that’s not reasonable. Expecting you to work your hours is reasonable though, regardless of when other traders “break up”.

I shall be working on 23rd. And 24th also. Though no black eyes or sausage roll expectations for me!

There's no travel in your contract and they're not paying for travel expenses so that's a hard no from me

That would be £50 petrol in my car 2 days before literally the most expensive time of the year

Fuck that

Original comment deleted because I realised there was an additional page of comments…

OP your biggest mistake here is the wording of your title

Read the thread

Everyone's getting on their high horses, but if you were told the shop shuts on Friday, it would be reasonable to infer that you wouldn't be expected to work on the Monday.

Why wouldn't you have to work on December 23? It's not a holiday. In fact, I would expect to have to work December 24 too.

It's a crazy plan but I don't think you can easily get out of it unless you take a day's leave.

You should be appropriately reimbursed though.

If this is typical I'd be looking for a new job in January.

If I didn't want to go I'd say/do one of the following. Assuming you are 100% correct about the business/shop closing for Christmas on 22nd.

Hi, as the shop is closing at the end of trading on 22nd December, I have already made arrangements to visit family and won't be available on Monday 23rd.

Honestly if they don't accept that, I'd take the deduction of a day's pay and skip it, as the cost and stress of getting there and back would balance that out.

If there is no other way out of it, then go, provided they pay you full expenses there and back, and preferably use the train and taxi/uber to get to and from the place in Manchester.

Well yes this is crazy. Working the day before Christmas eve is one thing, doing a 6hr return trip another. I'd be saying it's a no from me I'll stay in the office and answer the phones.

Bit of a tangent but. Legally they don't have to reimburse you. if they don't you can claim tax relief on anything not reimbursed.
www.gov.uk/tax-relief-for-employees/vehicles-you-use-for-work

Sounds fairly typical for 21st century capitalism. Company owned by some socially inept narcissist who wants to hang out with his employees because he doesn't have any real friends, at least not any who treat him with the deference he demands.

I would be asking how travel to Manchester will be reimbursed and what other expenses would be covered.

My point was it's not a normal working day if they have to do a six hour round trip on top of their normal hours. I'm not disputing the days in any way. I'm saying six extra hours is not normal

I'd just lose a day's pay - fuck 'em. I would also be sorting out my CV and going to work for a decent employer. Working on 23rd/24th - fine. But expecting people to pay their own travel to travel on what will be one of the busiest days of the year on the roads and trains just for a sausage roll ....no way.

Any half decent employer, if they really felt compelled to put on this sort of 'jolly' Christmas event, would provide mini-bus or coach travel for employees from their place of work to the location, as it's ALL employees who are expected to attend. They sound shite.

@Cosyblankets the 23rd is just a normal day, no different to the 22nd or 21st.

My son is on a zero hours contract two days a week, Monday, Tuesday,for an architect practice. This year. He's having to work the 23rd and 24th as is everyone till 5pm. Then drive home 2.5 hours to do his family home.

It's a tough market out there

It's not
Is a six hour round trip

OP as your tactic - I would suggest that as it sounds like they've announced this relatively late, say you already have a prior family commitment near home at [x] time (ie whatever time you would usually get home on a normal working day] that you can't rearrange and so you're happy to attend provided (1) they reimburse travel and (2) you can leave in good time to be home for your family commitment.

All sounds pretty normal guessing shutting the Friday for safety reasons

most if not all companies that shut over Christmas take it out of your leave

23rd normal day

I agree with this. I think it's normal for many lines of work to have a general sweeper clause in the contract re occasional travel (and I don't know whether yours does or not) and that's generally fine, and some types of jobs obviously involve that travel sometimes being outside of normal working hours (but again I think it depends on the general nature of the role, and pay etc as to how reasonable that is in the grand scheme of the job overall) but (a) any travel expenses should be covered if that's the case (and driving shouldn't be the only option as I wouldn't be happy at having a 6 hr round trip drive, that's too much driving for one person to do in a day) so train should be an option, and they should just be generally reasonable/practical and take into consideration that being 23rd that will be extremely busy for travel and so just may be completely impractical/total nightmare for some people. And depending on travel situation, the day should be shorter to factor in how long many people's journeys will actually be.

You don't see the issue with being given a "day off" but the catch is you've got to do a nearly 400 mile round trip that will take 6 hours at your own expense or you'll lose your salary. You can't see a problem with this?

Or this.

It’s just a day like any other. Can you book it off?

Oh this is interesting, I love regional differences like this. Yeah as others have said, it was always Mad Friday for me in North Yorkshire but live in the south east now, no idea if it's a 'thing' or has a name down here.