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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be shocked that retail workers don't get extra pay to work boxing day

210 replies

Sunshinecloud6537 · 10/12/2018 19:48

AIBU to expect these retail/hospitality workers get extra pay on top of their hourly wage when working over Xmas bank holidays. These workers a missing our on time with their families at christmas with no extra remuneration to compensate this loss of family time.

AIBU or does this just seem very unfair and not at all in the spirit of christmas?

OP posts:
Ollivander84 · 10/12/2018 20:08

I've worked in
Pubs and restaurants - standard pay
Mobile phone contracts - Christmas Day, standard pay
Emergency services - worked Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, NYE and NYD every year for 7 years in a row. No choice, couldn't book it off
Care/support work - extra pay for Christmas Day, standard the rest

AdaColeman · 10/12/2018 20:08

Worse still, is if your sale starts on Boxing Day, then on Christmas Eve after the store has closed you have to strip out all the Christmas stock & displays and replace with sale stock.

And you don't leave until it's done!
I take my hat off to anyone working in retail. You all deserve a Halo !

EwItsAHooman · 10/12/2018 20:08

and yet while shop workers and hospitality workers are told its a normal working day cab drivers are allowed to charge double time.

And bus drivers get the day off altogether.

Want2bSupermum · 10/12/2018 20:09

This is why I don't go shopping on bank holidays and I don't eat out at places that don't pay OT to their employees working antisocial hours.

Unions need to make a come back.

Weetabixandshreddies · 10/12/2018 20:10

Flat money for bank holidays and Sundays too.

MarthaArthur · 10/12/2018 20:11

I am working christmas eve, boxing day and new years eve this year same as last year and i get not a penny extra than any other day. Is a sham.

whenwillthetwitchstrike · 10/12/2018 20:11

I have mounted an ineffective but principled one woman stance against shopping on Boxing Day ever since I was chatting to a girl who worked in one of the branches of Next on Oxford St who was telling me that she had to be on the coach at 3am on Boxing Day to get to work for opening at 5am. The coach stopped a couple of miles from her house and she didn't know what to do as she didn't think she'd be able to get a cab at that time of night, she didn't want to walk it and she couldn't think of anyone she'd be able to ask for a lift. It just sounded so sad and so completely unnecessary.

theluckiest · 10/12/2018 20:12

DH is a manager in retail. It is shit. No extra pay for anyone in his store on Boxing Day. Or New Years Day.

He has someone off sick so he's also just found out that he has to work the next 8 days straight. Bloody shite.

Hats off to Aldi who close on Boxing Day.

Arrivederci · 10/12/2018 20:12

At wetherspoons, your Christmas Eve shift was normal wage, and could last until 4/5 am Christmas Day. Christmas Day was time and half, but you had no set finishing time as you had to wait until the last customer was finished and then clean up. Then Boxing Day and New Year's Eve was the same as Christmas Eve at normal pay.

HelenaDove · 10/12/2018 20:13

ive seen on threads here in the past that chilfree/childless people are expected to bear the brunt of it in a few cases.

Westiegirl3 · 10/12/2018 20:13

I've worked in hospitality for over 20 years since leaving school and have worked every single Christmas Day and never got any more that normal pay.
Even though we charge £65 per head for lunch, and turn over 100 guests...

Original poster
Sunshinecloud6537 · 10/12/2018 20:13

Totally agree with a lot of these comments. What an awful, greedy country we've become.

OP posts:
Littlemissdaredevil · 10/12/2018 20:13

I worked in retail in the 90’s not on a zero hours contract and we were expected to work bank holidays and Easter Sunday if we were rota’d at a flat rate but I think we were closed Boxing Day. As I was a student I was happy for the hours. Back then it was generally a quieter day so it was easy money

Justtrying · 10/12/2018 20:14

Not just retail. I work in a transport industry and we operate 365 days a year. Nothing extra for even working Christmas day. It sucks as only 2 out of our 9 location s work it.

Unihorn · 10/12/2018 20:14

Every employee is entitled to 5.8 weeks holiday no matter what.
In my restaurant (like many) holiday is earned in relation to hours worked. Contracted hours are based on a 17 week average. Hospitality and retail are not unionised so businesses get away with what they like really. If you're a part timer working 3 days a week and they fall on three bank holidays then that's just unfortunate. They won't get the days back, they're normal working days for us.

Original poster
Sunshinecloud6537 · 10/12/2018 20:15

I've worked in hospitality for over 20 years since leaving school and have worked every single Christmas Day and never got any more that normal pay.
Even though we charge £65 per head for lunch, and turn over 100 guests...

This is shocking, someone is netting the extra profit here! It should be going to the staff :@

OP posts:
VisitorsEntrance · 10/12/2018 20:18

Retail staff are treated like shit and if you dare complain then the implication is that there are countless people lining up to take your job.

Ragwort · 10/12/2018 20:21

Not everyone wants a Christmas off though do they, my DH has to take paid leave between Christmas and New Year, he doesn’t want the annual leave at that time of year yet has no choice. I work in retail, but our shops are closed on Boxing Day.

EwItsAHooman · 10/12/2018 20:21

ive seen on threads here in the past that chilfree/childless people are expected to bear the brunt of it in a few cases.

When I worked in retail, staff with DC at home got given the day off "because it's a day for kids/families" and the rest of us had no option but to work because apparently our families and lives didn't count for shit.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 10/12/2018 20:24

I used to get double time but got bought out of that contract so now it's essentially time off in lieu - we get a certain amount of holiday plus extra to cover bank holidays. You can choose to book them off or use them at other times. If you don't work Boxing Day you're expected to do NYE/NY Day. I'd prefer it if the store was shut obviously but it is what it is, whilst the demand is there we won't.

EwItsAHooman · 10/12/2018 20:24

Not everyone wants a Christmas off though do they

Then let businesses ask their staff, without penality or pressure, if they want to work it. If they get enough volunteers then great, they can open. If they don't then they'll have to stay closed although I can't see something like that working fairly without managers putting pressure on staff to "volunteer".

KonekoBasu · 10/12/2018 20:24

"While I think that shops should close on Boxing Day. Staff WILL get the day back to take some other time."

Doesn't always work out though. Staff should also get their contracted breaks, have 11 hours between shifts and get time off or paid for extra hours worked....

Platypusfattypus · 10/12/2018 20:25

I never got paid extra working public holidays when working in retail.

My sister doesn’t either in residential care. She works Christmas Day for her normal wage

adaline · 10/12/2018 20:27

I work in retail and I get double time on Boxing Day and the 27th. We get double-time for all Bank Holidays and time and a half for anything over 37.5 hours a week.

MarthaArthur · 10/12/2018 20:27

My shop is a niche shop that sells things related to bikes etc. Why anyone would need one on boxing day i have no idea when we dont routinely have sales. The company expanded and has made more profit this year than ever before and to celebrate they took away zero contract staffs hours as apparently they dont need us now. They are also happy to take advantage of us on bank holidays. I have no children and i live closer to the store (by close i mean i live 40 minutes by bus.) So i am expected to work them all and they actually have the audacity to tell me its a favour for me giving me hours. Grin my boss wont even be working these days either!

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