Can they cut DD’s pay?

[Cantstopeatingjaffacakes]

Probably going to be a long one so I apologise in advance…..

DD17 works two days a week on a zero hour contract at a local retreat centre as assistant housekeeper. The centre is rural and about 20 mins drive from us from us and relies on mums taxi and she pays me petrol money.

When she was hired they told her it would be at the adult minimum wage and she has been paid that so far.

A new manager has come in and realised that she is being paid above the NW for her age group and has emailed to say that from first of January her hourly pay will drop (and adding thats only if they offer her shifts).

Can they do that? DD turned down work in our local town because of the pay and is really upset that she could have saved herself (and me) a lot of stress getting there and back if she had known.

Locally all the part time jobs have been filled and she’s hesitant to look for Christmas work in case they don’t keep her on.

The new manager wants to talk to her when she’s there for her next shift and she’s not sure what to say.

You absolutely do need to contact ACAS. Even with a zero hour contract after a certain amount of time at steady hours and pay you get some rights with it. You 100% need to clarify this with them as I don’t think they can offer over wage and then pay you less just hearse a new manager came in bit it’s over 10 years since I went through similar

Depends what her contract says

How long has she worked there? I’d really be encouraging her to speak to manager and say she agreed to work at adult min rate, she’s doing a good job, reliable and experienced. Could the decision be reviewed. Know her own worth. She won’t be easy to replace. Housekeeping isn’t popular, zero hours won’t appeal to lots of people and rural means anyone applying needs a car or a willing mum with a car and time to drive them there.
Apply for other jobs. It’s not true all just pay nmw, McDonalds paid my dd over nmw for her age at 16 and 17.
The manager sounds very inexperienced. They should realise how demoralising it will be for dd, she’s hardly going to go extra mile. And if she leaves he’ll need to recruit, train a newbie. Whilst jobs are hard to get a rural centre offering housekeeping min wage zero hours isn’t going to be overrun with applications. Hope he has to clean the shit off the toilets himself!

This is true, what the employer is doing isn’t ok (she doesn’t need a written contract here).
But realistically, on a zero hours contract they can just stop offering her hours. And if she complained about that, they’d say “we aren’t penalising you for enforcing a contractual right, it’s just January, we’re quieter, we don’t have as many hours to offer”.

Has she got a written contract or the original job advert.

Do you need the tenner ? If so fine if not if not charge,

as for the contract what’s the words, is it nmw or a number,

also as others said it’s zero hours so they just won’t give her shifts if she refuses to accept,

If it were me, when she speaks to the manager I would say “ I really enjoy working here and the previous manager was pleased with my performance and the effort I put into my job. As you may be aware I live some distance away from the retreat and the additional money offset my travel costs. Should the pay be reduced I may need to consider leaving and obtaining a job closer to home. Is there any opportunity to keep my pay rate as it is currently? Worth a shot…if she does have a contract which states her wage though they can’t just change it. I’d speak to citizens advice xx

They can’t do that, as they will then need to do the same for others, and of course no ones pay is based on how far they need to travel.

You’re allowed to pay people different rates, people negotiate different packages all the time. You’re not allowed to do it based on a protected characteristic, but you absolutely can pay one person more than another.

Charging your own daughter is really, really mean OP.

Do you need the tenner that much, OP? Because I can't understand why you would charge her petrol money.

It's not mean to charge her for transport. It's teaching her about how jobs work!

I do need the money unfortunately and can't afford to spend an extra £20 on petrol money a month - plus I think it's good for her to contribute something. If she gets a job in the next town over it would cost her £4 a day bus fare so I don't think I'm being mean.

If you can’t afford £20 petrol money it’s unlikely she can afford £10, especially if her wage is about to go down. Maybe she’d be best prioritising getting something closer by?

She can afford it. She's looking for alternative work.

Does she pay bus gate to school or college? If so might be worth her looking into weekly pass so she could get to a local job at no extra cost.
If she’s been on £12.71 and they are proposing cutting her to £8 as under 18 it’s a huge cut and in all likelihood won’t make it viable for her to work with cost of petrol to get there.

This is my thinking. It may end up veering close to paying for the privilege of working. Must be really discouraging for her. Hopefully she’ll be able to get something more viable.

If nothing else, speaking up politely and giving an "elevator pitch" on why she is worth an adult wage will be good practice and make her feel she has done what she can. It is also the grown up thing to do and you never know, maybe it would underline the point that she is worth paying as an adult.

It would help if she understands the power dynamic here. As the cheapest employee of a small business, if she is good she might have quite a lot of negotiating power, but also they could easily be looking to replace her with someone cheaper (or 18 and able to do bar work) and almost goading her into leaving.

OP I don't think you need to defend charging her a small amount for petrol. It's a small piece in a much bigger picture at this age, they can still need a lot of support and funding especially if they are learning to drive.

Depending on nature of retreat eg if it’s health and wellbeing then January (new year health resolution time) might be a busy time.
Obviously depends on specifics but my friend was a manager at a residential outdoor centre in countryside not on a bus route and really struggled to recruit and retain housekeeping staff. They only offered casual contracts so combo of the physical cleaning work (changing stained bedding and cleaning dirty toilets isn’t for everyone), hours needed, need to drive and no guaranteed hours each week wasn’t popular.
I’d definitely encourage her to argue her case and also try and get a new job.

If they offered her x pay per hour it's contracted. If she's got a payslip she can prove it.

My comment should have said bus fare not bus gate.
It’s not a few pence it’s cutting her wage by 1/3.

Yeah, that’s the thing. Major pay cut. I feel for her. I guess she’s learning that what may be legal ain’t necessarily fair.

Thank you all for your comments. She's just found a similar job at a hotel in our town - still zero hours but I know they get busy at weekends and during the holidays so she should be able to pick up extra hours then (depending on her studies). I'm keeping everything crossed that she at least gets an interview.

Fingers crossed, OP! A part time job is so good for independence and confidence. I got £3.70 an hour for my job in sixth form. That went further then, of course!

Good luck to her. If she’s got experience I’m sure she’ll be in with a decent shot at the new job.
It’s a really shitty thing for new manager to do and really poor practice. It’s a good life lesson for her to take forward, she’ll always remember it.