Advice needed - lack of contract, not being paid, no days off....

[flumperoo]

My 17yo dd is at college (although on hols at the mo) and working 'part time' in a coffee shop. She was initially told that she'd be getting 4.98ph (nmw for over 18s). After working there for 6 weeks she received her wages via cheque and was told that in fact she was being paid 3.68ph (nmw for under 18s). She has since worked a further month, and was again paid by cheque but less 10 hours pay. Boss said he'll pay her those extra hours in next month's pay.

So far dd has no contract and is working very erratic hours, usually finding out the night before if/when she will be working the next day. She's working anything between 2 and 11 hour shifts with no breaks, although she sometimes makes herself a sandwich, and anything between 18 - 36 hours a week with absolutely no pattern. She sometimes goes in expecting to work several hours but is sent home after just a few hours or she just has no idea how long she's going to be working.

Obviously, dd is getting a really rough deal here, but it took her ages to find this job and she's worried about not getting another one (this is her first job!).

Can anyone advise exactly what is the law regarding contracts, hours, breaks, notice of rota etc so that she could maybe state some legal info in requesting better treatment, please?

Welcome to the work of work for young people as it is today, my cousin who is 28, 2 years ago got a job and contract and looking over it asked where the hourly wage? me and he mum had to walk her through what it is to be salaried.

zero hour contracts are the norm, which was where my cousin came from, she was messed about in this way and I couldn' believe it was legal, but they are used all the time, horrific, the owner is paying her min wage for her age and the only things under law I see wrong are lack of contract, but I believe once you have worked for a while in a certain way this is the contact....can someone correct me? and also I think at 17 she should be protected under the working time directive over the 11 hours and whatever her age from the no breaks.

on another note the lack of 10 hours pay is a classic trick, to keep the person working as they think I won't get paid unless I keep working, he will be short here or there, constantly.
she will find in 2 months this will become worse until she does leave, funnily enough after the Summer trade dies down.

also every 13 hours she works he should be paying her an hour on top I believe to cover holiday? again someone with HR will know better.

tricks to avoid this shit treatment, if he hasn't already get him to put into writing he owes her 10 hours, i doubt he will, ask for a wages slip for a "loan" again I doubt that will happen.

next get ye your revenge but using the only things you can as in if this is a local business let every one you know, once you have explored every avenue to get her paid. what a charlatan he is, then let the tax office know, I bet he is not paying employers tax on her, your daughter will not have earned enough to pay any, so in the clear.

also report his lack of working time regs, get her to keep a diary, back date it and lastly...tomorrow let her agree to go in when they ring then stand him up, no explanation, he will be used to it. she will lose the wages but better than wasting her time on it, she can start job hunting.

horrible lesson to learn but please report him as this is how they get away with it time and time again, my DB did in the 80's to a pub for tax on his wages when they treated him like this and once the investigation took hold the business went bankrupt with the amount of tax they owed, whilst the owner lived it up...but then couldn't my brother was the washer upper and aged 15, he now owns his own restaurant, and the business he worked in is still going strong 20 odd years later under a new owner, since that time.

can't clain if you do all this it will fuck them up totally...but it will a bit :-)

17 year olds can't work more than 8 hours a day

She is entitled to a written statement of particulars (contract) within 2 months.

She is entitled to rest breaks of 30 minutes if she works more than 4.5 hours

There is no law about how much notice needs to be given for work-that's a contractual matter between employer and employee.

I disagree that zero hours contracts are "the norm", although they are certainly overused and are the norm in some jobs.

I also can't imagine how the previous poster's idea of her standing him up after agreeing to go in will help the situation. It's easier to get a job if you're already in a job and getting herself sacked isn't going to help anything.

I would be fair to assume ignorance to start with. Get her to give him some information as I've given you. If his reaction is bad or he clearly is aware and nothing changes, then you'll know he is doing it deliberately. It's not as easy as just "reporting him" necessarily. If your DD has reason to believe he is not paying tax and NI for her, then she can report that to HMRC.

Thank you very much for your responses.

Today dd arrived at work to be told she would be working 14 hours on her own with no break, although he changed this to 10 hours when I called him, and she's been told she'll be working 10 hours everyday for the next 7 days, all with no proper breaks.

Dd has made some notes about the law and will speak to her boss about this tomorrow. We'll see if this changes anything.