Employee leaving work early and not meeting minimum contract hours

[Rustyfeet]

Hi all,
I wouldn't normally ask for advice on here but at this time of year all offices are closing!

We have an employee salaried to work a minimum of 40 hours a week. I went to do payroll for our weekly paid staff today and I added said employees hours up and seen that they are working 7 hours less a week.

I queried this and she point blank ignored this and was talking about something else in the message. She is supposed to be the manager of the place (hospitality) and sets up the rotas. I have now gone and collected all past rotas and she has done this for the last 3 weeks since moving from 0 hours to a salary. I worked with her to make the salary work and even agreed to pay a little more as she wants to apply for a mortgage as long as she worked the 40 hours minium.

Where do I stand legally regarding her pay? I have checked online but it all seems to be from an emplpyee point of view.

Tia

"But I wanted to give her a chance as she's young and was close to securing a mortgage..but at the moment I feel a bit of a mug and I don't feel so generous now!"

Would you let a thief take your money while you stood idly by?

So why is this any different?

Sack her. Who gives a flying fuck about her mortgage. Thats on her, not you.

Demoting and not signing contract are deflecting the issue at hand - the theft of time and money. Losing sympathy for you OP if you cant see that and then fail to act.

Why on earth would you demote her? She sounds awful and she is taking the piss and making staff unhappy - it’s shocking that she couldn’t even be bothered to submit anyone’s hours in time for them to be paid (had you not stepped in). Not working the hours she should is also sackable. It sounds like she had worked for you for a very short period of time so I would just let her go, tell her know that you are paying her (inc notice period I would just to have a gone easily much as that grates and say January onwards will not be busy so she is not needed). Just go for easiest route to have her gone. Working for a competitor in hospitality can’t be that much of a bother surely - lots of people work several jobs in cafes and bars. It’s hardly state secrets she’ll be sharing. That’s another red herring - she isn’t working the hours that she should be for you end of.

Get rid.

I would start disciplinary proceedings or sack her with immediate effect if you are able. She isn’t up to the job, which might be fine were she giving it her all, doing her hours and working the busy periods. However she isn’t and it sounds as if she’s perhaps leaving early to get to the other job on time. The mortgage is not of your concern and she will have to learn the hard way not to bite the hand that feeds you.

She was on a zero contract before. I do not know about contract law and what rights that gives her but she’s been an employee for less than 2 years, you can sack for any reason.

Tbh she’s costing you money and you’ve already paid extra for the accountant. The fastest and easiest way is to pay an employment solicitor for an hour’s consult to find out your rights. You may even find that consult saves you money.

Is it not grosse misconduct to leave work early?

I hope you can get rid of her soon. So many people desperate for a chance like this and she’s messing it up. It sounds like the text messages have made communication harder: she is ignoring issues and not picking up that you’re extremely disappointed in her performance.

How long has she been working for you?

If she’s contracted as salaried 40hours you must pay her in full. It’s your responsibility to find her 40hrs work,

That said, sounds like you have performance issues which you need to actively manage. ACAS can help guide you. If she’s been employed less than 2yrs in total, the easiest thing is to terminate, pay notice and learn the lesson. If she’s more than 2yrs then you’ll have to go through a proper performance plan.

However, you also mention she’s working for a competitor. Do you have anything in your contract about getting permission before getting other jobs, or working for a competitor being breach of contract? This might be another angle. Again, speak to ACAS.

Get rid of her or you'll be losing perfectly good employees who don't want to work with her.

Once you've sorted this out, learning about HR and employment law matters? If seems that this is a decent sized organisation, you are left in charge of HR matters and yet are asking some very basic questions. Getting HR matters wrong can be very expensive for an organisation.
Your manager is clearly taking the biscuit here but I also wonder if she and you are clear on the differences between a fixed 40hr week contract and a 0 hours contract. You have referenced a few times that you expect her to be doing 40 hours "as a minimum". How often do you expect her to do more than that? By how much? And on what terms? Are you expecting her to come in a bit early and stay a bit late routinely or on particularly busy days or for her to cover extra shifts? Does she think (incorrectly) that she can do less this month if she makes up the time next month? Did you make it clear to her that she can't do this?
As a manager, is she even on the general rota or don't you have her always working the peak times?

And you really should have put your foot down about working over Christmas

@Teeheehee1579 the reason we said not to be working at a competitor is because she's now gone and worked the busy periods there instead. So yes it is very important!

You don’t need a clause in contracts to say they can’t work for a competitor to make her work the full 40 hours for you!!! She has to do her contractual hours for you. It’s a red herring, just sack her.

Thank you everyone. So to answer a few questions. She's expected to work 40 hours minimum because that's the very least I can allow her to work for that salary.

Those saying I have to provide the work... I am. It's a restaurant open 7 days a week. There's room to be flexible but the 40 hours have to be done.

I am thinking to go down the route of just giving 4 weeks notice and asking her not to come back.

Re HR yes I need to.sort this out. We are a small business. We have 4 places and about 40 staff. This has all happened quite quickly in concession of each other and actually wasn't what I planned. But that's a story for another day!

Also regarding text messages. She refuses to speak on the phone! I will always try calling before texting. Although now I know why!

I work for a similar sized small company with a single boss and he pays another company to outsource HR to make sure it’s all compliant. If you have expanded rapidly and don’t have the skills yourself it might be useful and avoid a lot of dealing with this sort of thing.

Write to her (home address and email) and invite her to a formal meeting. State all the facts: not working her contracted hours, failing to submit staff payroll information etc and add anything else. State that this is deemed as gross misconduct and you'll be dismissing her with immediate effect. She has fallen well below the expected standards of her role.

If she’s rotaed herself off this week and is working elsewhere is she expecting to be paid by you too as she’s now on a salary?

Thank you @Miloarmadillo2 I didn't know we could do this! Will definitely look into it!

If she hasn't signed the new contract can you just pay her for the 33hrs under the zero hours arrangement you had?

@nameychange yes she's put herself on the rota for Friday and Saturday night. Which isn't busy as everyone's waiting for NYE

Dh has asked her in for a meeting on Friday before her shift. She just put a thumbs up. He put in the message what it was for. We don't have time for a letter now as then she will roll into the next month and I want to give 4 weeks before the next month starts

Possibly @SquishyGloopyBum i am going to go have a chat with a friend in a similar area and see what they say regarding this too. They have more experience than me

But does that mean she’s not even rotaed for 40 hours? Does she not understand that on salary you still have to do the hours? Seems crazy to bite the hand that feeds you.

If she hasn't signed the new contract, and hasn't worked the new contracted hours, I'd just pay her for the 32 or whatever hours she worked. If she queries it just say but that's what you worked, and your new contract's not in place yet because you didn't sign it.
The worst case outcome is she successfully raises a grievance, tribunal etc and you have to pay the extra - highly unlikely.
Unless there is a key date over the next week such as end of probation period, end of 2 years of employment etc that changes her rights, I would park all of this until wc 6th Jan. This is a really busy time for you and you probably won't have time to do it properly in terms of employment law. Let her do whatever she's doing, note it all and deal with her when it's calm

You don't need to give her 4 weeks notice if you're dismissing her. I wouldn’t want her anywhere near my business for another 4 weeks.