To make daughter face her bosses on her own

[krustykittens]

I'll try to be brief! My teenage DD approached a family-run restaurant that was looking for waiting staff and was told that she should come in for an unpaid trial and they would let her know. She did, they called her after and offered her a shift, she turned up for it and was told after three hours, when the rush was over, "Oh, this is another trial, unpaid, you can go home now." She wasn't happy but was desperate to land her first job, so when they offered her another shift, which she confirmed would be paid, she went in and again was told to go home after a couple of hours as the boss's son had turned up and wanted to work. Then, for three weeks, they didn't call her in for another shift, just kept telling her they had no work. A friend told her of a job going at a place she was working in and she got it, did three shifts last weekend. The old place owe her 20 pounds and didn't pay it into her account, instead they told her to come into work tomorrow (an hours journey by public transport) to pick it up and have a meeting with them. They have a track record for being unpleasant as bosses, which she knew before she applied for the job, but she said she would ignore it if it meant getting her first job. Now she is scared they are going to get nasty with her and wants me to come with her. They haven't a bloody leg to stand on with her as far as I am concerned and I think she should just go in and face them and tell them, calmly, that yes, after being left high and dry by them and treated fairly shabbily, she has found another job. She has to learn to be an adult and do things without me at her side. But she is worried sick about tomorrow - should I offer to stand outside the restaurant and go in if she calls me on the mobile to back her up? She is only a kid and these people love to power trip, which is why they are demanding she do a 2 hour round trip for twenty bloody quid! I'll be honest, part of me wants to walk in like Clint Eastwood and demand her money on her behalf! I am driving her in partially because I can do some shopping in the town, partially because I don't want to give these arse holes the satisfaction of wasting her whole morning when she is meant to be revising for exams!

For the sake of £20 you’d think they’d just pay your DD it to get her off their backs, utterly ridiculous and sounds like someone is on a power trip.

Definitely go and support her.

@PookieDo
My DD did an unpaid trial and it was 6 hours with no break, her first ever job. I was annoyed about it as I thought ‘free child labour’ but they did actually give her a paid job although they are all 6 or 7 hour shifts and only pay her £4.25 an hour bless her

I haven’t got involved in any way (I’ve told her to find a better paid job) although I feel quite sorry for her I would step in if someone took the complete piss out of her in this way!

Did you mean to put a laughing emoji there? They are taking the complete piss out of her.

I'd share my experience on TripAdvisor

It's not about the money, it's the principal. You're DD needs you to show her that exploitative employers should not be taken lying down.

Good luck. And if they don't pay up exercise your right to peaceful protest with placards, pointing out how they exploit child labour, outside at their busiest time.

She is only a kid and these people love to power trip, which is why they are demanding she do a 2 hour round trip for twenty bloody quid! I'd go with her. She has no idea what the meeting is about, and you said they love to power trip. Why send her alone?

I wouldn't write the money off, that is what they are counting on. Go in, get it, leave.

I totally understand your attitude to have your kids stand on their own two feet but I think in this case a older more experience head is needed. These people are obviously scoundrels and will probably try to con your daughter out of money she is owed or time.
Also I hope I wouldn't chalk it up to experience , I wouldn't be surprised if theses people have been trying it on for ages with others too.
If you have proof that she worked there and was requested to, maybe you/your daughter could send an email that unless the money is paid you will be taking them to the small claims court.

I would definitely go in with her. At 16 I wouldn't have to confidence to stand my ground and would probably walk out empty handed. I wouldn't be going in there at a time that suits them, we would be going at a time I know it would be busy. I would be armed with all relevant info, and I'd
make sure everyone in the place heard me say my piece, and I wouldn't leave until she had been paid. Then I'd report the bastards.

If this was my DD, I'd be definitely going in Clint Eastwood style.

If you have a case against them...throw it at them. Bastards, taking advantage of a teenager!

Yeah fuck that. I would just leave the 20 quid, its not worth it.

I had a similar experience when younger actually, 'trial' at the Raddison hotel. 6 hours first time. Then assumed if I had done good that day I would get an actual job, as I had been told but no, next shift they wanted me to go 'cheap' as its a 'trial'. Again, assuming proper work would be tere after this, I did it like the mug I am. That shift they were awful with me. If there was even a slight crease on the beds, they ripped off everything I had done and made me start everything fresh.

I was meant to get a tenner for that shift..5 hours. I decided that night that they were being awful and working for them would be horrendous. My mother tried to push me to go get my tenner and also pressure tem into paying for the trial work also, as it wa so much. But no, just left it as I did not want to see the boss, who was an utter dick. Awful experience.

This is just shite manangement really, it does infect a lot of UK businesses.

My wife was ripped off by a main car dealer, bit of a story won't bore you.

I went there one busy saturday morn to tell them what I thought about the matter long and bloody loud and they tried to shush me wasnt having any of that, just made sure the other customers overheard what was going on even asked a few of them what would they do in similar circumstances:-)

End result was a refund cheque for £864.00 quid

and it cost them a sale of £38,000 odd nice upmarket German motor!

But there are a couple of highly regarded pub eatheries here if they treated young ones in this way they'd not get any staff, word does get around!.

Hi OP haven't read the full thread but trust me I am the fiestiest woman ever, I'll hold my own with anyone who has wronged me but when I was 16 my mum or dad would have been by my side in this situation (as in moral support wise).

Reading this now all i think is 'ew twatty small dick aggro boss man picking on young girls, how tragic' but when you're 16 'boss' means some magic powerful force. You think bosses are like headteachers, authoritative and scary. Try and see it through her lens.

Having you there, hopefully not doing any of the talking but ready to step in if it went wild will be so crucial to her. Hopefully she nails the 'cool, calm, assertive' thing and you know what? Next time she won't need you.

The entire sector runs off paying under 18s minimum wage. And now they don't even want to do that. Very poor

@Nanny0gg

I can’t do anything about it in reality though (I think it is actually £4.35 or whatever the minimum is) as they aren’t really breaking any rules I am aware of, just running their lucrative business off school kids - it’s morally shit and I wouldn’t give them any of my own business but the irony is that thousands of parents do!

If it wasn’t my DD working there it would be another kid, it’s actually really competitive to find a job when so many 16-18yo want them in a fairly small radius. I’ve told her what I think of it, and she is choosing to stay for now as the crap money is better than no money at all

They are paying my DD so I am not about to march in there and mortify her - but I would in OP’s shoes

I think at her age you need an example of exactly how to stand up for yourself. Go in there, give them what for and let her witness exactly how its done. it may give her the confidence to do it by herself if she is ever in a similar situation again.

I hope you've got it sorted op.

.

Thank you all so much for replying. I had bugger all sleep, I was so angry so was not in the best mood when I went out with her this morning. They were VERY nice when we turned up, which threw me a bit because I was getting ready for a knock down, drag out fight. They sat us down with her money in their hands and told us they had called her in for a meeting because they felt she wasn't happy. Yep, damn right she isn't happy! So I outlined all the ways they were taking the piss, they agreed to pay her for the shift when they didn't tell her it was an unpaid trial and I got her a bit more money, she told them she was very unhappy as she felt they took the piss and we left. All very calm and I am very proud of her. She has since told me that although they are obligated to provide a meal if she worked five hours or more, they expected the kids to pay full price for it (NEVER heard of this before and like I said in previous posts, I waitressed for years) and they took their mobile phones off them and locked them away, again, not allowed to do that. They are shitty, passive aggressive twats. DD is very down, feels like she let them make a fool out of her but I pointed out that doing shitty jobs for shitty people is a rite of passage we all go through. At least her new job is lovely and treat her fairly, otherwise her confidence would be in the toilet. Thank you to the PP who told me about the organisation representing minimum wage workers in Scotland, this is where we are based. They are very active so I will be giving them the heads up about this business, as well as the council and trading standards. The Young Scots web site has a legal helpline that kids can call, she talked to someone this morning and they confirmed that it is illegal to ask someone to work for free. Unfortunately, as a pp pointed out, the hospitality industry is doing this as a matter of course and is normalising unpaid trial shifts. We live in a rural area where jobs are hard to come by and people are scared that if they don't do the un-paid trials, they will have no hope of getting a job. Her school are focusing on life skills for their year group in September so I think I will flag this issue with her teachers and see if we can get some local press coverage. It is disgusting the way they take advantage of kids. I am still steaming about this! I want to make these fuckers regret their shitty business practices.

And yes, they do take advantage exclusively of under 18s as they are the cheapest. The only people working there over the age of 18 are their own kids (their daughter is the one who throws menus at people's faces). They seem to hire school children to do all the grunt work of fetching and carrying and try to get as many un-paid trials as possible. A lot of kids are on study leave at the moment, I shudder to think how many hours they are getting free at the moment. Although, you will love this, when they heard I was an experienced waitress, they asked me if I wanted a job!!!!! I told them I couldn't afford to work for free.....

Your daughter should be proud of herself (and you). She didn't let it go, she turned up, got her money, got extra money by complaining about the second unpaid shift and also spoke her mind to them.

I'd love to know how they would have handled it if you hadn't gone with her.

God knows. As Dexy pointed out she really did see them as all powerful bosses and was really scared going in today. I kept telling her, they are NOT your bosses, you haven't worked for them in three weeks and they don't want to pay you for the work you have done!" I am kind of upset I didn't get to unleash my wrath, we were out of there in 10 minutes and it was all too polite but at least she left with her money in her hand.

Being exploited at work, as a child, is not a 'rite of passage'. You've received a lot of good legal advice here, around laws and resources, and you've chosen to ignore it.

Please still report them.

Waytooearly did you even read my last few posts? I said the exact opposite of "I'm not going to report it". I've not chosen to ignore any advice. Please read things before typing sanctimonious answers, you just make yourself look stupid.

Compassion. Pay her the money yourself. Explain why.

Poppy It's done and she got her money off the people who owed it to her. She has also, I hope, learned a little bit about employment red flags. Some jobs are not worth the aggro.