Pay for part time job

[Springhasarrived]

In the past few days I had a call from my part time job only 20 minutes before I was due to start (paid on an hourly basis) to say not to come in as the business would not be opening that day. The reason for the closure was a problem caused by the council regarding drains and flooding. It was fixed, and I went to work the next day.

Could you tell me if I am entitled to pay for that day? Thanks.

I would say yes, you are. You were ready for and available for work.

thanks. I will see if I get paid for it and go from there.

It depends on what your contract says. Most companies will have a clause saying if the business cannot operate through circumstances beyond their control you can be stood down unpaid. Check your contract

OK, will do. That does seem pretty unfair.

Yeah but a small business would go under if it had to pay staff if the building flooded for example. I work for a small business and being able to say sorry its unpaid stopped is from folding when we had a fire. The staff at least had jobs to come back to

I disagree that most companies have a clause like that, and in circumstances where someone has regular contracted hours, a company may struggle to enforce that as it's not a fair contract term imo.

Having said that, it does depend on your contract whether you get paid.

Do you have regular contracted hours OP? As in regular times and/or regular number of hours a week?

My contract says "at least 16 hours per week". I was no where near that during the week concerned. I work 3 days one week and 4 days another.

It is all very well, dietstarts, but I do rely on the money as I am sure most workers do. I could have gone in and done something even if not what I normally do.

If you were contracted to work those hours and were willing and able to work them, and there's no flexible/zero hours/employer under no obligation to offer hours or similar, then yes you should be paid.

If you are not, you may need to raise a grievance for non payment of wages but hopefully it won't come to that.

Diet - most companies will have insurance cover for loss of profits caused by such incidents which will enable them to carry on paying the wages even if they are not open. I would not be willing to work for any company which did not have adequate business insurance.

I have never come across an employment clause allowing a company to stop paying staff. I agree such a clause would be very difficult to enforce.