Teenager’s boss & his shift

[Hazyjaneishere]

My son (16) has a job as a waiter in a small independent restaurant. When he started he was told he would have 1-2 shifts a week at weekends. There was a girl working there doing same role and it seemed for a while she would work one, he works two and then the next weekend it reversed. All fine though he did like the two shift as more money.

anyway the girl started to be a bit unreliable, calling in sick etc - son gets the call, goes in etc. now she’s quit and the boss just said something like ‘so you work all three shifts now’. My son feels a bit iffy about this, but obviously he’s young and whilst he’s quite confident, he doesn’t really want to lose the job. So he didn’t say anything but in reality whilst he’s OK to do three shifts on weekends there are other times when he would want to be spending time with friends or going to a football match, that kind of thing. And of course there is school work to consider as he’s doing a levels. But it’s also so long since I had any kind of casual job like that, I’m just not sure whether this is the way things are now and whether he has to suck it up. Am I being unreasonable to think that actually the boss should’ve asked if he wanted to do the three shifts? He has subsequently asked if he can occasionally take time off, and the boss hasn’t said no, but he also hasn’t been very welcoming to the idea either. It’s 15 hours a week which feels a lot for a kid. Would welcome thoughts on how to handle this, if there even is a way!

It’s a couple of shifts at the weekend… not a full time brain surgeon!

So going from 2 shifts to 3shifts ???

I'm not sure what is the relevance. It's not about the length or the number of shifts but about the principle of unilaterally changing the employment conditions. If anything, it is more deplorable to do that to a young person in a low skilled job because, at least, the brain surgeon has the power to push back.
Poor treatment of employees should not be normalised. The sooner the boy learns that, the better prepared he will be for the world of work.

My DS does one shift a week (sometimes two) and it works perfectly for him. He wouldn't want to do three because of fitting in schoolwork, football and a social life. Recommending a friend to do the third shift is a great idea.

Really?? I checked and depending on their date of birth a 16 yr old can work upto 40 hours a week.

Presumably he’s at school, has to do homework and study, and socialise and see friends? Bloody hell. Do you think we should bring back workhouses as well?

That’s not right, that’s for children below 16.

This is LOADS stricter than it used to be! So my 11am-3pm waitressing shift over Sunday lunch every week would now be illegal! £2.30 an hour I used to earn…(that certainly would be illegal…)
AND I used to work 1pm-6pm without a break in the village shop from the age of 14…now you need a break after 4 hours…

It says 15-16 year olds.

Term time rules
During term time, children can only work a maximum of 12 hours a week. This includes:

• a maximum of 2 hours on school days and Sundays
• a maximum of 5 hours on Saturdays for 14-year-olds, or 8 hours for 15 to 16-year-olds

Where did you check? The (UK) government page linked above says only 12 hours during term time or 35 hours during the holidays.

He needs to ask; the boss may have assumed that he’d want the extra shift and money.

My daughter was contracted to 8 hours a week, she was happy working up to about 12 bit over that she found impacted her ability to feel she had time to study.

Also in addition to uk law (linked above), your local authority may have its own bye laws. So google those too.

Possibly. Though it’s not the way it was presented. I do think he needs to just state his needs and hope the boss is ok with it.

This is what concerned me. And I think by covering the girl who left at short notice he’s just become unwittingly someone who has given the impression they’ll just turn up when asked. I asked him to push back on one last minute request as he wasn’t very well that day and just very tired.

Yes it makes a big difference. It’s going from rushing one day a week where he hasn’t got school or a shift to having no days a week where that’s the case.

That is a good point. They kept her in for ages after I’d have thought they’d be getting rid of her. Then it was her who left them. Maybe he just needs to be ill too ;)

The law (for England at least) states once you've reached school leaving age you can work up to 40 hours each week.

A 16 year old who is yet to take their GCSEs (perhaps born in September) is different to a 16 year old (born in August) who left school in the summer and would be turning 17 in the next school year.

He goes in and says he is going to have to quit, parent and school are not happy with the school work due to all the hours he is working, so he lets them know he is going to have to look for another job with less hours

it should do the trick

I doubt this is about anything he has done or not done. My bet is this bloke would have tried to "make" any other casual worker do it as a first off because it's just easier for him than trying to fill a single odd shift.

It's basically a game of chicken.

It would be much simpler just to say that he’d prefer the original 2 shifts. There’s really no need to bring other commitments and people into it; it sounds childish to say ‘my mum says.’

What does his contract say?

Also, he does have an entitlement to 5.5wks paid holiday like everyone else.

He doesn’t have a contract but is on payroll so not sure what he’s entitled to

Well that's also illegal. Sounds like this restaurant is breaking a lot of laws.

I don't think it's illegal not to have a written contract if he's on the payroll? My daughter (16) also works a few shifts at a play centre, which is very well-run and completely legitimate, but I don't think she has a written contract as such. She is on their payroll though and had to provide her NIN and gets pay slips.