Zero hour contract - Exploiting daughter

[Djm1]

Today 07:16 Djm1

Zero hours contract exploiting my daughter.
My 19 year old just got a job as a care assistant for a home care company. She's on a gap year and due to start mental health nursing at uni in Sep.
Her employer hasn't given her a copy of the contract so I can't see what she's signed but to me she is being exploited.
She has been told that she has to do every job that is offered. She ifilled out a form when she started showing her availability and being completely available all week and they are trying to say this is a legally binding document and therefore means she has agreed to be on 24 hour 7 day a week unpaid standby. They were literally giving her jobs on the same day and telling her she had to do them because she had said she is available.
She is being told that she can only take 2 weeks holiday despite it being zero hours so surely she could simply say she is working zero hours for a week if she wants?
They say she is bound by her contract to work whenever they tell her. Some days she is having jobs at 6.30am then having unpaid gaps throughout the day till 11pm at night.
My question is is this legal and can they tell her she can't turn work down?
Next week she needs Thursday off. As she hadn't yet been given a Rota she emailed them to say she was unavailable. They said that it was too late as the rota had been done and she had to work. She still hasn't seen it!
I suspect they are short of staff but I am so frustrated by what they are telling my daughter and she is so shy she won't argue. They are in essence telling her that because she said she is completely available they own her and she has no rights over her own life. Please advise!

I've read your comments more carefully now. Some things about their practice are definitely illegal. For instance, care workers must now be paid for their travel time between appointments -- Google 'care workers pay and travel time' for various publications.

There are also some practical examples around pay for travel time and breaks (specifically for carers) from the government site here: www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-different-types-work/overview

Also, the holiday time may or may not be dodgy.

She has no legal obligation to take shifts offered, nor do the company have to offer her shifts. She has been 'employed' as a worker, not an employee.

She has the legal entitlement to sick leave, and paid holiday. I really don't understand why so many employers fail to grasp this. It really isn't a difficult concept.

Is the on call element in her contract? Even so that needs to be discussed with her employer. It's a weird expectation of a casual worker.

She needs to leave. Her experience with this company is unlikely to improve. I would advise that your daughter obtain a copy of her contract and see what notice period she has siged up to. The statutory notice period is one week's notice after one month's employment but contractually she might have agreed to a longer period.

She needs to decide if she wants to do this. No doubt there are other employers desparate for staff.
My dd had a zero hours job at uni and she had to really really stand up for herself it was a valuable life lesson.
She told them in writing that she was able to work x hours a week but needed a minimum of a weeks notice. Once she had her weeks rota she never answered her phone. Funnily enough they were so short staffed they accepted this.

I wasn't assertive in my first care role, I did no shadowing (which she should have been paid for) in my first week and worked 96 hours mon-Fri, I ended up on anti depressants. Now I say no, I enjoy my job so much more, it's a lovely rewarding job to be in, as long as you're not being walked all over.
She really needs to either stand up for herself or leave.

Home care is like this, unfortunately. Often carers that take on a lot get taken advantage of and the coordinator has to be pushy to ensure calls are covered.

I worked in recruitment for a home care company and when carers pulled out or called in sick then I had to cover their calls. I couldn't say no as vulnerable people would go without.

If she doesn't want to travel perhaps she could consider being a care assistant. The shifts are longer and all in the same place, similar with support work in supported living.

The company she works for seems over stretched and thus she is unfairly put upon. If she really wants to stay there she needs to be stronger and give her availability to the letter. Specify dates and times and point blank refuse to work outside them. Have a cheap work phone that she can turn off when she has stated she is unavailable.

It's a learning experience.
In sixth form, my DD used to work casual hours at a hotel and they exploited her. I used to seethe on her behalf but she sucked it up.
She now has a proper job and wouldn't stand for being exploited.
Your DD will get past it. It's only temporary. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

She could do with getting something with more regular hours and therefore better pay, though.

Surely if she's signed something she is "allowed" to have a copy of it.

I'm no lawyer, but doesn't the "working time regulations" apply if she hasn't signed out if it, where you should not work more than 48 hours per week, no more than 6 days a week, and have a decent gap between finishing work for the day and starting again the next day.

Also, don't people get at least 21 days leave a year?

This company must have a really high turnover of employees if this is the way they are treated!

These zero hour contracts can be ridiculous, zero hour care work even more so. Your daughter can say no to the shifts, she is not obligated to work them. I would advise her to look at call centre work or similar as even with a zero hour contract she wouldn't need to be available 24/7 and she could do that for a while before moving into admin work where she won't be taken advantage of. This sort of thing really pisses me off, and when you're young it's not easy to stand up to your employer.

I think it's awful to treat care staff like this, carers are essential for so many people and it's a very hard job, I definitely couldn't do it.

I managed a year working for a home care company. Also had a zero hours contract, though I'd told them at interview I wanted no more than 20 hours a week as I had school age children. Some weeks I would get 16 hours, the next I'd have 45. It was literally horrendous, and some days I'd have 4 hours paid work all in half hour jobs spread from 7am to 11pm. I had no social life, I used to dread my phone ringing as they were always short from people walking off the job. The clients were lovely, but the girl who did the weekly rota didn't drive so had no idea that a 20 mile drive would take up to an hour and a half in traffic! I once got sent to a half hour lunch visit that I got paid roughly £4 for. It took me 45 minutes each way to get there, so in total I was out of the house for 2 hours for that £4. I put 24 000 miles on my car in 12 months and that was all local work but I spent all day doubling back on myself. It is slave labour, but I think it's the nature of the job to be honest and every domiciliary care company runs in roughly the same way. That's why they are always short staffed as most people burn out from it! I hate to say this but your daughter really needs to find something else.

They are most definitely taking advantage. She either has to be more assertive or find something else.

senua
It's a learning experience.
In sixth form, my DD used to work casual hours at a hotel and they exploited her. I used to seethe on her behalf but she sucked it up.
She now has a proper job and wouldn't stand for being exploited.
Your DD will get past it. It's only temporary. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

Your daughter's situation (i.e. a student working casual hours around school) is not comparable to somebody who is obliged to work, and does so on the basis described by the OP. What she has described would ultimately be detrimental to some employees health/wellbeing.

Your DD needs to tell this company to shove the job up their ass!

I worked for a company like this, who genuinely believed the aspect of 0 hour contracts were there just to benefit them.....did not like it one bit when I pointed out that it works for me too!

They tried to tell me I had to work my notice, told them I'd work 0 hours of it!

If she is going to go into mental health nursing, she is going to need to learn to be assertive. On two counts, firstly because she is choosing a career where it is likely she is going to be called upon regularly to cover shifts and needs to learn when to say no or she will be taken advantage of. She will be the first one called because she is easy and will agree.

Secondly, she will need a thick skin in mental health to deal with the system, the staff and some of the patients. It is likely she will spend time on an acute mental health ward and they are difficult places, even more now than they used to be (I'm an RMN).

Someone upthread suggested she join the nurse bank. This is excellent advice for her career wise too. She will get to learn what the job is like as a bank HCA, avoid the annoying 'I've just done a degree so I know better than you' newly qualified attitude because she would have done the job from the bottom up, and she will get to work in places that she will likely go on placement in. It's the best course of action long term.