Employment confusion

[vivazeboo]

Hey, I'm in a bit of a pickle. I started working for my local Abbey as a verger last september (I'm not religious but I love the job) my contract is for 3 hrs a week but almost immediately that I started, their full time verger went off sick. I have now been doing his job (21 hrs pw) for the last 5 months and he came back briefly (I'm thinking to 'reset' his sick time!) in the meantime though I have been working 5 days pw and cannot take any paid holiday due to not being on that contract..I know 21 hrs is not full time but it's a v physical job and I need time to be with my family also (I'm a single mum of three boys) ...my question really is, can the other verger keep just coming back for a bit and then going off? I know the church would rather give me the job but they're kind of stuck with employment laws? Thanks for any help :)

You should absolutely be getting paid annual leave. The more you work, the more you earn. If they don't allow you to book and take days they should be paying you the equivalent of days earned periodically.

What the other verger can do is up to the church. They could dismiss him if they think he won't be capable of doing the job. It is perfectly legal to dismiss someone who has a long term or persistent illness that means they can't do the job. The church must first look for ways to support him and give him a reasonable time to recover. If his illness constitutes a disability they need to consider if there are any reasonable adjustments they can make to allow him to return.

However, the bigger issue is that you say you cannot take any paid holiday. You absolutely can. Even on 3 hours per week you are entitled to 16.8 hours paid holiday a year. As you are being required to work more than that you are entitled to more paid holiday. If you are doing 21 hours per week you are entitled to 117.6 hours paid holiday. The contract is irrelevant if it gives you less paid holiday than this. It cannot override the law.