DS works on a 15 hour min contract at Coffee shop- how available does he need to be every weekend ?

[Munichfam5]

DS has been working at a medium coffee shop chain for a month , 15 hour min contract
we have a big family wedding on 25-27 April in London and so he has requested this time off

his boss has said he can’t have it as other people have requested it off and so he needs to sort out swaps with other staff members

But DS he hasn’t even has his schedule for that week yet and he doesn’t know all the staff properly yet

How demanding Can a coffee shop be when DS is on a 15 hour per week contract ?

TIA

I totally agree.

I could understand the manager being pissed off if the DS has waited until the rota was done and then had said "oh I can't work these days". However, the manager has had plenty of notice and basically all that's being requested is for the DS' contracted hours to be on any other day that week. If they run Sunday to Sunday like a lot of retail did when I worked in it then he'd still be doing a weekend shift that week as he could do the Sunday the weekend before.

Yes but he can't rota people in who are already booked off. Let's pretend he has 6 members of staff and needs 2 at work at any one time. 4 have booked the weekend off. Even if he hasn't done the rota yet he only has 2 peope he can rota in on those days. Wether he has written it down yet or not is irrelevant.

That's not the DS problem, that scenario would be the fault of the manager for not leaving additional capacity within his rota to cover for things like unexpected unavailability of staff, sickness, etc.

It is his problem as we have seen it can cause his holiday request to be denied.

Your son dropped the ball. He should have told them the holiday was booked not just assumed. It's also in the kids easter holidays here so full time staff probably booked a week or two off

How can he swap shifts when no shifts have been rota'd?

Unless everyone but the minimum staffing levels have booked/requested that week off I guess, in which case there's nobody to swap with.

Honestly OP I'd just tell him to be honest with his manager that he won't be in that day regardless, and start applying for other jobs.

She’s asking for advice for her son. People ask for advice for their friends too, for their parents sometimes. HTH.

Is there a group chat? My dc was McDonalds zero hours. You got your rota a week in advance and if you wanted to switch or drop a shift she had to sort it. If it wasn’t taken people would put money on so £10 to take my shift.

As others have said, he should have mentioned before signing, he already had a commitment that weekend. Then it would be honoured.

However, between them, my dc have worked in dozens of PT jobs like this and people swap all the time. He needs to find out how people do this. Typically a WhatsApp Group. There are always some staff who are looking for extra hours, or some that are just very flexible about when they work, and others who will, to help him out. (He of course needs to be willing to cover someone else later).

How on earth has he managed to get to this age without knowing this ?

The manager has left enough capacity! Thats literally why the DS’s request has been refused.

your DS will be sick that weekends anyway 😉

I remember a similar situation many moons ago when I was a student. I went away anyway, think I feigned sickness not realizing it was totally obvious as I'd already asked for the time off. Result? My zero hours contract remained at zero hours pretty much permanently. ie they sacked me without sacking me.

If he goes anyway, he'll likely lose the job

That's Easter isn't it? One of the busiest weekends of the year. They will need all hands on deck

The chances are that if more than one person has already requested the weekend off work, all other staff will have to work that weekend and there will be no one for him to swap with.

No, Easter is the weekend before.

And why, if he's a graduate is he only working 15 hours a week? Surely Amazon, Lidl etc are looking for full time staff.

This is the problem today. He's not standing on his own 2 feet at 21/2. He's relying on the helicopter parents to deal with his life for him. Surely if he's got a degree he should have mentioned the fact he can't work then.

I despair

Outrageous that a business will pay for 15 hours, but insist on 70 hours of availability.

They do it all the time. However if this company are employing students they must be working around lectures etc so I imagine if negotiated at interview some days or half days may be blacked out as unavailable.

Presumably the manager said the other people could have time off not knowing OP’s son also wanted it off. What’s he supposed to do, cancel someone else’s leave to solve the problem caused by OP’s son? Absolutely not, it’s not the manager’s problem.

The son can't ask anyone to swap shifts as he doesn't know which shifts he has been assigned.

Expecting him to be available 100% of the time in order to work 15 hours a week is unreasonable.

I hope he can find someone to swap once the rota has been done or that the Manager asks for other staff willing to pick up additional hours to cover the shifts they would have rota'd your son on for.

The manager may not have written down who does what shift, however the number of people not granted leave will be known. So no surprise if say four staff are needed on Saturday and there are only four to choose from.

My DD has a zero hours contract and it states in her contract that she will have the rota the week before. It also states that as long as she tells her manager her availability before the rota is out, she has the right to turn down shifts if she’s been rota’d on her unavailable dates. I’m sure it even says she doesn’t have to accept any work offered.

Obviously zeros hours and 15 hours is different, but surely people can’t be expected to keep all day every day free for the foreseeable future because they might be rota’d to work?

I told a company I couldn't work Saturdays once when I took an office job.

They put me on a Saturday-I really couldn't work it-but £10 is a bargain!I paid a woman £50 to do it and that was probably around 2012!

Wow, this is wild. So not only do they push the responsibility from management to staff to resolve staffing issues, they have people paying each other for the privilege!

What a racket! 😆

@Velmy

Many people on zero hour contracts very much appreciate the fact they can swap shifts to fit round their lives. That's one of the advantages of the system. Not just students (although a lot are students), but people with caring responsibilities (elderly parents, spouses, as well as dc), people who are just topping up pensions, or income whilst they are a SAHP, people who go away with sports or hobbies, people who struggle to work full time, people who have illnesses that leave them unable to work when they have flare ups but capable when they don't, and just people who get invited out and want to go!