Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not work notice on zero hours contract?

57 replies

SugarMouse1 · 20/04/2014 21:29

I currently work for minimum wage on a zero hours contract for about 35 hours per week.
However, times such as Easter when students are back from uni, my hours get reduced to only 20, and after travel costs I'm better off on the dole!
I've been offered a six month contract on much better money/conditions elsewhere.
However, I have to start this week, and my current job requires 1 month notice.
I'd like to stay on good terms because I want to keep free gym membership and be able to d occasional work.

Help, what should I do?

OP posts:
getagoldtoof · 21/04/2014 05:57

I am still on my old zero hours contract from 2011... may want to go back to old place of work, so not going to hand in my notice, despite working ft elsewhere. I occasionally get offered work, and may take it if it were suitable around my hours.

And I agree, each amount of work you get given counts as a period of work in itself, they cannot make you work a notice period, but you may need to play carefully for references.

Original poster
SugarMouse1 · 21/04/2014 07:06

TheAwfuldaughter-

New job want me to start this week, so I cannot physically be in two places at once!

Thanks everyone, I do still feel bad, and I kind of need to be on good terms to get my training records.

Should I just call in sick and lie?

OP posts:
TestingTestingWonTooFree · 21/04/2014 07:11

Lying saying you're sick seems a bad idea. If it's for a month, wouldn't you need a MED3 certificate from a doctor?

FunkyBoldRibena · 21/04/2014 07:46

Hand your notice in.

Refuse all hours of work until your notice period runs out.

Don't do the sick thing. You should have kept copies of training records as you went along. Very rare for companies to reissue training records once you have left.

tobysmum77 · 21/04/2014 07:50

yanbu in this case

there isn't really anything employers can do re: people not working notice periods in any type of contract. However in a permanent job unless there was a real issue it is decent to honour it!

GuybrushThreepwoodMP · 21/04/2014 07:54

What everyone else says. Tell them you're working zero hours. They have no right to give you a bad reference because if this (legally as well as morally).
I wouldn't lie. This will do more damage than good.

myitchybeaver · 21/04/2014 07:55

I'm an employer. Zero hours contracts have advantages and disadvantages for both employer and employee.

On a zero contract your boss can withhold hours to you on a whim. But you can also be unavailable for work on a whim too. That's the rules and you need to just tell your boss you will be unavailable for work from this date... As you've seen you are disposable when someone else comes along.

justgirl · 21/04/2014 07:57

OP people understand what you're saying, so you don't need to keep repeating that the new job wants you to start this week so you can't work both but as your hours have been "reduced to 20 a week" and you are an a ZERO HOUR contract, you are
perfectly capable of starting new job this week and either only working for current employer at times when you are not working for new employer (evenings, for example), refusing any work offered, or just simply saying you are leaving and that's that. I don't know what it is you are scared of as there are legalities to consider and you are doing nothing wrong and your employer cannot do anything about it, nor can they withhold your records and what not. It's like your seeing the advice/facts and choosing to ignore them?

senua · 21/04/2014 07:57

If you hand in notice, how likely are they to actually offer you work? They might grumble for the first week's rota but after that everybody has moved on and you're history...
As we all know, none of us are irreplaceable.Sad

Good idea to try to leave on good terms, though, especially if new job is only for six months.

msrisotto · 21/04/2014 08:00

I think you want to keep the gym membership you get as part of being an employee, right? That won't happen if you quit, on good terms or bad!

AbiAbi · 21/04/2014 08:25

For heavens sake, just be honest to them. I'm an employer and would never hold back one of my ZH employees from pursuing their career elsewhere, I'd wish them the best f luck and hope they'd stay on the books in case I needed help another time.

Be a grown up and tell them the truth.

Casmama · 21/04/2014 08:37

Is the problem that you have already committed to work hours this week and will not be able to do them if you accept the new job, otherwise I can't see the problem.

Andrewofgg · 21/04/2014 08:40

YANBU, sod 'em, go.

EverythingCounts · 21/04/2014 08:47

What everyone else has said. It probably won't wake much impact on a reference anyway as you wilt get a standard bland HR one. You can refuse the work, so what can they do?

AbiAbi · 21/04/2014 08:49

Also you have only been offered a 6 month contract - don't burn your bridges in case you need casual work again!

Sally40000 · 21/04/2014 10:49

Zero hours is really bad, I hope they make it illegal really. I was offered zero hours about two years ago, but I haven't signed. I thought zero hours meant they can tell you when to come in, only you cant refuse. I could be wrong but that was how I read it. So I haven't signed yet. I still get told when I am working at the last minute. Sometimes they don't tell me if I am working next week and then ring on the Monday. But I feel sure I can tell them when I cant come because of family commitments.

LiegeAndLief · 21/04/2014 10:53

I am on a zero hours contract (thankfully in different circumstances to yours). You are absolutely not obliged to do any work for them. Zero hours works both ways, your employer can't have their cake and eat it! They get to reduce your hours, so do you. Hand your notice in and then refuse any work for the rest of your notice period.

LiegeAndLief · 21/04/2014 10:55

Sally,you can absolutely refuse work on a zero hours contract. This could of course mean that an unscrupulous employer could try to get rid of you, but the basis of the contract means that neither side has committed to providing or doing a set number of hours work.

Sally40000 · 21/04/2014 11:05

OK I may have read what it said on this contract I was offered two years ago, as it is still in my inbox , but if this is not too cheeky could anybody else tell me what it is supposed to say in the bit in the contract which describes the hours. If I had signed I would have got a few days paid holiday, but when I didn't sign they looked into it, and then I started to get the 12.1 per cent thing which was mentioned in a post above. If I had signed it I might have got some sick pay which I have now missed though. the one I had did mention holiday pay and sick pay, but not how many hours would actually be worked,

Sally40000 · 21/04/2014 11:06

Sorry! meant to say "misread"

whatever5 · 21/04/2014 12:16

"Sally40000*- I wouldn't sign the contract if you are getting work anyway.

Sally40000 · 21/04/2014 15:11

If it broken, don't fix it kind of thigy

Sally40000 · 21/04/2014 15:11

Sorry meant - if it is not broken don't fix it

Lauren83 · 21/04/2014 16:09

I don't know why everyone hates zero hour contracts, admittedly some people use it as an excuse to take the mick out of staff but all the zero hour workers I employ (I'm a manager its not my own company) get exactly the same perks including hol/sick/mat pay etc, it just means for people like students/single mums etc it offers a great deal of flexibility, I have had many staff ask to to go onto a zero hour contract from a set hour one

aquashiv · 21/04/2014 16:36

Just be honest.