Wibu to ask for more money?

[Lemononachair]

I work in catering and have been furloughed since lockdown was announced. I am desperate to get back to work as I'm so fed up of sitting at home and need to get earning money again.

My workplace was pretty good to furlough me in fairness. I had only been working there 6 weeks when they had to close and had not gotten a contract yet as they told me I would get one when my probation period finished. Probation period was to be 3 months. Because I was furloughed only 6 weeks in I still haven't technically completely my probation. I was told that my furlough would be based on a hours of 36pw even though I actually did 40+. Of course with no contract I couldn't really contest this and I was just happy to be getting any money from them.

Pay rate was supposed to be NMW until probation completed when it would go up to £9ph. At the time MW was (I think) £8.21 but obviously it's now increased to £8.80ish so my proposed 'wage increase' is now virtually none. In addition, the place has had extensive building work done during our closure so is now double the size. We have a completely new menu, a new kitchen team and they have cut staff numbers dramatically so they basically want to change the whole way they operate. They also want us to make everything from scratch and prepare everything ourselves in order to cut costs. This all means of course that my workload is going to increase a huge amount. I've also been asked to 'multitask', as in work in other areas when needed so I'll effectively be doing 2 different jobs. The job description has changed a lot from when I started.

I'm no longer happy to do all this work for minimum wage, even to the end of my probation period as I feel this is a bit of a piss take for a skilled and qualified member of staff to have to do such a huge amount and cover other people's positions too. Wibu to ask for more money now that the job has changed?

You are going to get destroyed with this. Yes you would be foolish asking for more money when you haven’t even been called back yet

You can ask, but they'll probably get rid of you for being a pain...

I can see where you are coming from, but don't think you are in a great position to negotiate. Given the situation, they could presumably easily hire someone else who would be happy to accept £9ph regardless of the work load, and given you've only been there a short time, it's easy enough for them to just get rid of you. How easy would it be for you to find something else?

Yes.

They've laid off staff, and you're already complaining you won't get paid enough.

If there's a significant change in duties everyone might need new contracts anyway and if everyone else gets a payrise then you should too.

They might have bigger premises but they'll have bigger gaps between tables and closed Ng by 10pm.

If you're coming an your own meals and waiting tables, what are the new kitchen staff doing? It seems unusual they want you coming a meal and doing all the table service for that meal, just from a hygiene perspective.

If you aren't happy, get a new job

Cooking from scratch for £9ph? I think you could do so much better OP.

Are you applying for other jobs?

It’s a shame you’re being called foolish and a pain for wanting a fair wage. I see that jobs primarily done by women are routinely undervalued on MN.

And regardless of doing cover in different areas, you're only working a set no of hours. You can only complete a set amount of work on that they me so you don't deserve more money for working on more than one part of the same pin/bar etc

I am 100% going back - I'm just waiting for my rota for next week. We have an opening date. I also just found out that one of the only other remaining staff has left so in reality they do need me on board. I realise I'm not completely indispensable, far from it, and I don't want to rock the boat too much but I just feel it isn't fair. They wouldn't get someone else to work that much, with my experience and qualifications, for that little. Similar workplaces offer much higher rates of pay.

I'm also wondering if I should ask for a breakdown of costs because I've noticed that on my payslips it doesn't state my pay rate, just 'rate' under 'furlough payment'. I've worked it out very roughly and I'm pretty sure they actually haven't upped my pay rate from the old MW rate to the new one when it changed - which means they've been underpaying me by at least £80 a month, even with the 20% deductions for furlough. I'm actually pretty pissed about that because I have been really struggling and scraping by the last few months and to know that actually they might have been underpaying me since April makes it that much worse. I've had to spend so much money on my credit card just to survive and now I'm stuck trying to pay it all back. I feel the least they can do is to pay me a decent rate that reflects all the work I'll have to put in going forward.

Just in case anyone mentions it - I have been looking for other jobs during lockdown and still am but there is nothing suitable available at the moment. In other ways the job suits me very well I just don't want to work my arse off and still have to live in poverty.

Yeh you’d be crazy to ask for more now whilst your still on furlough. Be grateful you are still getting paid and bring it up next year when everything is in a better position. They are more likely to give it to you then when you’ve been a team player over winter and hot in with what they’ve asked.

Absolutely check if the furlough takes account of nmw changing, they might have assumed this was automatic and not checked.

But if you want to be a waitress not a cook and they're now asking the waitresses to cook, you need to get a new job

If you are that highly skilled, why accept a NMW job in the first place?

If similar places are paying more, why aren't you working there instead?

Why do you think this is a good idea when you've been applying for jobs for months and not getting anywhere?

You honestly sound like a nightmare.

Just to be clear - the other staff that have left have done so themselves. No one has been made redundant they've just not replaced the staff who have gone. Sorry, that wasn't obvious from my previous post.

The new changes mean that I will now have to -

Make every menu item from scratch, including cakes and desserts
Prep all vegetables for events (like Sunday roasts, etc) myself
Wait tables
Make/serve coffees
Wash dishes

Previously I could just concentrate on being in the kitchen.

Before, we had at least 8 staff members in FOH and 3 BOH, plus 2 Kp's and 1 person who did all the baking. So 14 in total. Now we have 4 staff plus me doing a bit of everything.

Oh a might have read wrong op. Do you mean before it was all whack it from freezer to cooker cooking and now it's make fresh?

Tbh I wouldn't want to eat somewhere where the cook was coming out the kitchen in their cooking apron etc, waiting tables, making a few coffees and then going back to check in my lunch so I suspect once you're open things will change. I'm not sure you can keep a proper eye on say a dozen lunches whilst clearing tables and washing up?

But the point remain, do not ask for a payrise 6 weeks into a 3 month probation.

I wouldn’t ask for the next couple of months at least.

You work an minimum wage, unskilled job but want to get paid a lot more?
You do realise a lot of people working in the nhs, with degrees or specific qualifications don't even get minimum wage after tax?

You are a cook/waitress. This is completely normal in catering. You would be mad to ask for more money to do your waiting/bar/cooking in the current climate. Plenty of people who have been made redundant would love to get paid £9 an hour!

It's easy, if you don't want to do the work for that hourly rate then you can leave.

Tbh if you've only done 6 weeks work, and you're already trying to renegotiate rates and working conditions, roles and responsibilities you'll end up being first on the list should redundancies come round I suspect. Plus if you're not out of probation yet it's not the time to be making waves.

What they are proposing to do is no doubt to cut costs, this won't be because 'they can' it will be as a result of not making enough money. If they can't do this then the company may fold and you'll be out in your ear with no redundancy anyway.

I'd think carefully as to if you need or want this job

Be grateful you have a job to go back to. Thousands of people would accept a full time NLW job right now.

Honestly, negotiate from a position of power. Go back to work, see how the new system works out then ask for a meeting and outline the factual reasons you believe your remuneration is too low and what you think it should be. Market comparisons might help make your case.

We're not in a race to the bottom, people still have the right to a fair wage for their skills and responsibilities.

@JustCallMeGriffin good to see a voice of reason instead of a bunch of people trying to keep OP in her NMW box.

Yes It was batch cooking that was frozen down and reheated so in service it was much easier and quicker.

I am a fully qualified professional chef with 10yrs experience. I also have a degree. I'm not claiming in a genius with a PHD but saying I'm 'just a cook/waitress' is extremely condescending, as if someone doing that job is completely unskilled and not worth anything, or at least only the bare, bare minimum. I notice it's always the people that have never done this kind of work that don't realise how hard it is.

It's only a minimum wage position during probation then was supposed to go up afterwards. Unfortunately MW is standard in a lot of places in this part of the country unless you work somewhere extremely prestigious or generous and then there are other issues to go with that.

The owners have another business that has been running all through lockdown. They've obviously had the money to pay for extensive building work so they can't be that badly done by!

I wouldn't ask straight away by the way, I'd be happy to stay on (current) MW until probation is finished. I just want a small increase to reflect the increased amount of work and extra duties they expect.

Wow some of the people commenting on this thread are what's wrong with the world.

You should ask for a fair wage for the amount of responsibility you're being given. It's far more than you did when you started and sounds like it requires loads of organization, time management skills on top of the cooking. They can't fire you for asking a fair question and if they did, you could sue them, so no harm in just asking! :)

Hope they realise they're underpaying you and please please please ignore people saying don't do it. The worst that can come of it is they say no!

Sounds like they’re exploiting you.

I don't think people are saying OP isn't worth more than min wage at all, it's just not the time to be asking for more money when there aren't other jobs to go to and there will be people lining up to take this position.

Do the job for a while. When life resumes some form of normality and you've proven yourself, ask for more money.

The OP never even insinuated they were a professional chef until the massive drip feed mid thread. In that case yes you could ask for more money. Or go and work somewhere else where you are not expected to do someone else's job.

Catering covers a vast area of jobs. We aren't all physic and didn't to now the OP was a chef! It is not unusual to be covering food prep and waiting tables in smaller cafes and establishments.