Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

Original poster

less than 24 hours notice of my hours changing

13 replies

toxicwaste · 22/07/2012 18:59

Hi all,

I have a zero hour contract at the cafe I work in. It only opened in April, and is part of a bigger venture and all General Assistants are on this zero hour contract.

As a mum of a 5 and 7 year old I have juggled a lot to ensure that I am flexible and can work when they want me to, even paying child minders after school meaning that for those hours I have effectively not made any money. The cafe has been very very busy a lot of the time and I come away feeling physically shattered.

I went over the rota for the summer holidays and me and my supervisor agreed what hours I would do, at the expense of spending time with my family. Again, I am trying to show that I can be flexible and trying ensure I would get hours in the winter.

I am meant to be in tomorrow and got a phonecall at 3.30 saying the rota had changed and I was not needed tomorrow and that I had three hours cut next weekend.

Surely, even on a zero hour contract this is not right. I'm more than a little pissed off!

OP posts:

racingheart · 22/07/2012 19:22

I can only sympathise. Zero hours contracts are wicked. Why should you be so accommodating. Can you look round some other cafes or restaurants that give you regular shifts each week? Prets are said to be good to work for (don't tell me it's with them!) Or a cafe in a department store, so the hours are fairly sociable?

parakeet · 22/07/2012 20:01

What is a zero-hour contract please?

Original poster

toxicwaste · 22/07/2012 20:06

I am certainly considering leaving this job. Bloody tesco;s would be a better option. Now considering phoning on Thurs and saying I can't work Friday (effectively the reverse of what they have done to me), but that would be churlish...

OP posts:

Original poster

toxicwaste · 22/07/2012 20:09

Sorry Parakeet, a zero-hour contract means you have no set number of hours in a week. The employer can give you as many or as few hours as they want. my issue is that they had given me the hours and then taken them away.

OP posts:

TheCrackFox · 22/07/2012 20:14

I really think zero hour contracts should be illegal. The only employees they can possibly suit are young adults, still living with their parents, with no financial commitments.

PiggyMad · 22/07/2012 20:19

YANBU
Did they give any reason for taking the hours away? Even on a 12 or 16 hour contract in retail and catering you are often expected to do more and be 100% flexible. It is very difficult in these industries to find part-time work with regular hours for parents.

ENormaSnob · 22/07/2012 20:29

This is cruel IMO.

I agree these contracts shouldn't be allowed.

Personally, unless you are in dire need of the money I would quit.

Xales · 22/07/2012 20:54

I really think zero hour contracts should be illegal. Totally agree.

SoDesperate · 22/07/2012 21:02

ahhhrrgghhhh bring back the power of the unions!!!!

I feel we have regressed a hundred years with these contracts and I suspect they are used mostly on women and youth, in that order

nightowlmostly · 22/07/2012 21:08

Where I work took on a good number of staff on zero hours, it was really bad. They didn't mess them about too much with their hours, but we'd just been taken over by an American company and I did worry that it was going to be the start of a slippery slope of us all being on it. Thankfully it ended and they took some of them on a 40 hour contract permanently. They really shouldn't be allowed, the worker has no rights with it at all, they can stop giving you any hours at all whenever they like.

YANBU OP, I know it's easier said than done, but try and get something else!

Original poster

toxicwaste · 22/07/2012 21:47

PiggyMad the only reason they have taken the hours away is because they are not as busy as they they thought they would be.
This is down to their marketing department, and their pricing strategy. (it is a massive new venture, in Cornwall, on an old miming site (should be enough for google!) I have bent over backwards to work really hard for.
i am just so annoyed that after coming in work to with 10 mins notice in the past and proving myself to them (they have actually said I am the best general assistant) that they would do this.

OP posts:

Original poster

toxicwaste · 22/07/2012 21:50

coming in to work with 10 mins....

OP posts:

racingheart · 23/07/2012 23:42

Toxic, tell them. If you explain how much effort you make to be available, and that it really throws you to have to suddenly rearrange childcare etc, maybe they can be a bit more organised.

Can I ask: what happens in weeks when you are not called in at all? Can you claim benefits?

Flip