Am I BU to be pissed off with my boss...

[Sparklyblue]

Hi all,

this is in employment too, but thought there may be more people over here.

Sorry this is long.

I went on Maternity leave on 27th Feb 2009, I was asked when I was likely to return and I said Jan 2010. I had a letter off the boss saying I was due to return end of Feb, but if I wanted to return earlier, to put in writing my date of return, with at least 21 days notice. All fine.

Fast forward to November when I send my letter to head office stating that I would be returning 5th Jan 2010. Still all fine.

Last week of term in December I am told by my superviser that there is a problem. They have contracted my stand in till the end of Jan. I must explain that I am a food service assistant at a school and it is usually just my supervisor and I that work. They have said that we can all work together for the month.

I return today to be asked if it would be ok if my supervisor was shipped out to another school and that I work with my stand in. I have a number of problems with this.

1. I will be expected to supervise this lady and do all the paper work and generally be in charge. But not at supervisors wages, just my own rate.

1. I have been told by numerous staff that the stand in is useless at her job. I witnessed this myself when I did a keep in touch day in December. So I will be doing the major share of the work.

So my supervisor has rang her supervisor to say I am not prepared to do this. We are entitled to 36 hrs work as the number of dinners we serve is high, but we all work 15 hrs a week so we will be nine hrs over.

Just wondering where I stand.
If I am made to supervise this lady, will I be entitled to extra pay?

If we all work together they are likely to cut our hrs. Surely it is their mistake, so they should be prepared to pay the extra for the month.

Where do I stand legally on this situation.

Thanks if you have reached the end of this. Hope you can understand all the waffle

No idea where you stand but are you in a union?

No I'm not.

Obvious answer. Ask them to ship the stand-in out to another school!

Do you work 15 hrs but get paid for 15? I don't get where the 9 hrs bit comes from?

I agree - ask them to send the assistant to the other school.

AFAIK, you are legally entitled to return to your job as it was before, on the same terms and conditions providing that you have notified them in writing clearly of your date of return.

It does not matter when your stand-in is contracted to. If your initial letter to them stated 'I will be off between xxx and yyy' and this was submitted and approved, this is what they have to stick to.

From what you've posted, this seems to be the case. You've given your date of return in writing and they've agreed. Verbally changing their minds later is not on.

The one thing I would state, is that this should have been dealt with before you went off. Did you agree in writing a different date before you ever left on Mat Leave? If so, there might be a case, but I don't think so. I think you're still covered by submitting the letter in November. Did you keep copies??

They can ask you to be flexible (and you should be prepared to be a little bit) but they cannot ask you to take on a supervisory role for which you are untrained, without the pay boost, and they cannot reduce your hours because they've made a clerical error with your stand-in. The could, however, claim some sort of economic factor for the reduction in hours and this would be harder to argue with.

Write another letter, today, and clearly state that you previously confirmed in writing that your return to work date was 05/01/2010 and this was approved. You have not been notified of any change in conditions/pay etc at any point.

Ask them to write back to you and confirm what they would like you to do.

Then see what happens. Be prepared, though, for having to do a bit of extra work for the sake of just keeping everything running. They should pay you overtime for any extra hours you do on paperwork etc and they must not reduce your hours without notifying you in writing first.

Thank you ginnybag. I will be having a word with my boss tomorrow. You've raised some very good points.

Hando. The 9 hrs is what will be over if all 3 of us work. I work 15 hrs, that plus boss and stand ins 15 hrs = 45 hrs. For the meals we serve, our kitchen is only allowed 36 hrs.
Hense the 9hrs over.
God I hope that makes sense. I'm crap at explaining things.

The other thing to remind them of is that as you are returning from an extended period of absence (admittedly not through illness) they still have a duty of care towards you and should be reasonable in helping you to adjust to returning to work not making things harder