Flexible Contacts = taking advantage.

[37KAT]

My DD applies for a job advertised as part time at one of the big supermarkets. She is in her gap year, hence part time role.
She was given a contract which specified '9 hour flexible' she also had to fill in all the days she would be available for work, which of course she did as she was job seeking!
The reality of this is that she has a regular 9 hours a week over 3 days. They can then give her as much overtime as they want to with a weeks notice - supposed to be 4 weeks notice but they ignore that.

This would make sense if it was on the days she was working 3 hours, however this 'flexible' contract gives them license to fill her non contracted days with as much overtime as they chose to as she said she was available at the interview.

If she says she is unavailable on a non contracted day, she has been told in no uncertain terms that she will face a disciplinary. She applied for a part time job and has signed away her full week to this supermarket.
There have been occasions when she has worked 40+ hours. I am proud at how dedicated and reliable she has been but they show zero flexibility in return.

She is trying to book a Saturday off in April and has told them it's for a university open day and they are saying no as it's a Saturday - since when can employers dictate what day of the week you can take annual leave?
The managers sound appalling, bullying, unorganised.
I am relieved that this is not her forever job and if it becomes unbearable she can leave - it's going that way.

I am shocked that this sort of thing goes on. There must be many people who have no choice but to put up with these 'flexible' crappy dictating contracts. Its been an eye opener.
I would also have expected better from this major supermarket.

Legally an employer can dictate when an employee takes annual leave. Though they would have to give sufficient notice

That's not strictly true. That store would have to have a business reason and declining all leave that week or day. They absolutely can not say she cant ever book any saturday off.

If everyone 3asnt allowed to take Saturdays off that would be one thing. Except that wouldnt be allowing people to take a full week or two off.

A particular saturday because others have got it booked off or its expected to busy (say Easter Saturday), and no one is having leave, that's fair enough.

There is no way, every front oine remember of staff in this company isnt allowed to boon a saturday off.

It's a ludicrous situation. To have to be available 7 days a week but with possibly no extra work should be illegal. Of course it's a good way for the businesses to keep staff costs down, which in turn keeps prices down, but I would rather pay more at the checkout if it meant the workers had better employment rights.

Given that she doesn't really need the job to survive (unlike some poor people in this position, some on zero hours contracts), I think she should accept the shifts she's offered whenever she can but if she can't, then just don't. If they sack her, then they've lost a trained member of staff 🤷‍♀️.

The employer isn't king but they run the businesses around the demands of their customers/clients and their needs. They then employ staff so they have the workforce to meet those demands and needs. They advertise said work, people apply and are then required to do it.

It's not that they're dictators they making sure that there is sufficient service provided for customers, the problem arises when you have managers who badly handle staff rotas, misinterpreted policies and good working procedures which could be happening in ops case.

Sounds about right for retail but it's not right. I'm always telling my kids not to go to retail unless like yours it's a sat job.

I'd just call in sick on the day she needs tbh.
Tossers

Oh and I think you should name this company.

the problem arises when you have managers who badly handle staff rotas, misinterpreted policies and good working procedures which could be happening in ops case

^^exactly this.

I think she needs to make a complaint that:

1. her manager told her that she can never have a Saturday off
2. Rotas are arranged at a weeks notice not a months as per company policy.

If it is one of the large supermarkets they will have a proper HR function and far more senior people than her prat of a 'manager'. I also suspect this treatment is partly because she is new.

I doubt its the nature of flexible contracts that is the issue here, it sounds like it is the stores management team taking the proverbial.

When I took on a second job my management team wasn't like this at all and even though they tried to weedle us into overtime, they knew if we said no that was it. It's not mandatory and there can be no consequences from saying no.

Contractually, there is no way they can give your daughter a disciplinary for not working on a non-contracted day. For sure they can just fire her (under two years) but not go down that route as there would be no basis. Sounds like a scare tactic and taking advantage.

Seems like because part time jobs are hard to get, this management team know they can push it more than perhaps if there were more options out there.

Completely sympathetic as your daughter is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Only advice I could give is to try and get out ASAP.

So if someone works retail they can never go on holiday on a Saturday or go to their own wedding on a Saturday?

The flexibility only ever benefits the employer. These retailers should have full time roles if they want 40 hours a week worked.

sounds like this should be a warning for others - thank you for the heads-up OP. when I have a teen of this age I will warn them to not to tick available every day of the week!

@MsVestibule this is what I am going to suggest to her as well as seeking alternative employment. If she is faced with disciplinary action she could resign first. She is fortunate that she isn't dependent on this job.
Management is generally chaotic and appears disjointed and disorganised.

This sounds not unlike my experience of working in a supermarket in the 90’s! I was on a 12 hour contract but worked much more, while I was at school and uni. The weekly schedule was put up in a Thursday so you really never knew what you were going to be working each week. Getting a Saturday off was a nightmare as the older staff who worked on weekdays only wouldn’t come in at weekends (often because they couldn’t, sometimes because they didn’t want to) which meant getting a Saturday fully covered was difficult. Basically they didn’t want to start making it easy for the evening/Saturday staff to take a Saturday off. I used to dread asking as the supervisors would act as though I was being unreasonably demanding. I hated that job and it sounds like not much has changed.

37KAT - even is your daughter is disciplined and dismissed for not working full time hours on a part time contract (ridiculous!) I would just advise her to not put it on her CV. It’s a part time casual job in a shop. I certainly don’t put my student retail experience on my CV!

Get her to call Acas. I called them when I was contracted to 10 hours a week but was constantly being given 60 hours a week. They cannot do it. They told me what to say to the employer and all of a sudden I only started doing my 10 hours. Get her to ask about the leave, if they refuse just get her to call in sick in the day x

@AdachiOljulo absolutely! The reality is that they do tick everyday as they want the job and often somewhere in the narrative in the job advert is the word 'flexible'

Management is generally chaotic and appears disjointed and disorganised.

So she needs to complain as below. Middle managers in FTSE 100 companies cannot just do whatever they like 🤷🏻‍♀️.

And plombear is absolutely right, if they sack her you just pretend it never happened it isn't the end of the world.

She’s casual staff in a supermarket. They do it to suit their needs and not the staff needs.

As you say, she’s lucky it’s a bit of pocket money for her and she can leave if she wants to. The reality for some is this is their life.

They could be more accommodating with the uni open days I agree, but I suppose it’s their busiest day. In the same way my husband wont be granted leave in March April May as it’s their busiest time working as an accountant. 🙄 it’s not uncommon for employers to decline leave.

I had this exact same situation with a job I was offered in a small but still well-known supermarket/budget shop. It was advertised as part-time and I was even told multiple times at interview and when I accepted the job what the hours and days were going to be. Then, as soon as I started I had that 'fully flexible' line dropped on me and all of a sudden it wasn't three days a week as advertised, it was five or six with 12 hour shifts thrown in. I remember it was written in the contract something about being expected to be 'fully flexible and adhere to rota changes' - how is anyone supposed to have a work/life balance with that kind of shitty exploitative crap in a contract? In the end I got something else not in retail but it's a depressing fact of retail that, in my experience anyway, seems to happen everywhere to some extent and the bigger companies seem to be the worst for it. I don't have any real practical advice I'm afraid other than maybe a smaller independent shop would be more accommodating? I worked for a small convenience store round the corner from me for three years and even though the owner had much less staff than a bigger shop would have, he was very accommodating of people's schedules - he had a member of staff who was at college and could not only work evenings and he always respected that and never expected them to be at his beck and call. Maybe worth asking around at some smaller shops?