Wages reduced

[mrsconradfisher]

I have posted this in legal but had no replies so posting it here too…
Will try to keep this as brief as possible. DS1 is 17 (18 in Feb) and has been employed at a local tourist attraction (it’s a zoo if that makes a difference) since last Easter. He works in the coffee shop. Apart from the 2 weeks we were on holiday, he worked every Saturday/Sunday and every day in the Summer Holidays very often staying way past his hours to help out. He was employed on a wage of £9.50, this is stated on his contract. I’m aware it’s above the NMW for 17 year olds however it seems to be the going rate for Tourist Attractions round here as his previous job was at the same rate.

Over the last few months, the staff (who are mostly teenagers) have been contacted by HR stating their wages are to be reduced to NMW for 17 year olds which is £4.81. Some have agreed to it but others have just left. DS did nothing as he hasn’t received a letter until last week. Basically it says due to operational requirements they are asking them to reduce their wages.It’s slightly more convoluted than that but am reluctant to post the entire letter.

Its apparently due to high running costs of the zoo which I completely understand but it was packed out every single day over the Summer.

I just wanted to find out if it’s legal for them to do this before DS replies to the letter? I could understand perhaps if it was just over the winter but it’s not. It will go up slightly in February (when he is 18)but not up to what it was before this.
Also we live rurally (and the zoo is rural too) so it’s a 20 mile round trip to do a 4 hour shift so getting paid £4.81 an hour is not really worth it. He would have never taken the job at that rate as he’d barely be breaking even with petrol costs etc.

Any thoughts?

What contract did he sign when he started and what does the contract say?

I don't know the legality of this - I always thought your pay couldn't be reduced. Maybe speak to ACAS?

I don't know the law on this, but FFS that is ridiculous, and even more so given what you've said about the travel costs. I'd advise him to quit, simply for his own self-respect. There's no point working for wankers simply to burn ones whole wages in petrol.

As he's been there less than 2 years they'll just let him go if he doesn't agree I imagine.

I used to work in a zoo too and my contract was 'casual' - I don't know the legalities of that, but they seemed to use it as an excuse to do whatever they wanted.

You need to look at the contract that your son signed, and ring ACAS for advice.

Contact says reasonable changes to hours and location (it’s 2 zoos, about 25 miles apart) but nothing about wages apart from stating his wage as £9.50.
My gut reaction is to tell him to quit as well. The issue is he really loves the job and jobs here are like gold dust. He lost his previous job in awful circumstances through no fault of his own (his boss disappeared and the cafe closed) and it took months to even find something. He is hoping to go to Uni next year so this would have worked really well as could have kept working holidays when they really need staff.

I agree that they will probably just let him go, problem is 75% of the staff are under 21 so they’ll end up with no staff at all.

Good idea about calling ACAS.

I’m also very tempted to contact our local paper (without giving his name) as I think local people would be shocked as to what they are doing. It’s a huge Zoo, very well known locally and with a good reputation. It’s shocking how these kids have been treated.