Zero hours contract and non rotating

[Pollywallywinkles]

Friend works as a domicilliary carer for company for over 2 years, however is on a zero hours contract. This is secondary employment and she has worked every Sunday during the period (excluding holidays or sickness), she has been in this employment.

Rotas are normally sent out a week in advance and as she had not received one for the weekend before Christmas she phoned the company and was informed that as she is not available over Christmas they will not be putting her on the rota until the new year.

Company did not give any prior notice of these arrangements and just didn't send a rota.

Is there anything she can do about this given the zero hours contract? Thinking of constructive dismissal.

But she hasn't been dismissed?
I'm currently dealing with a zero hours contract problem (not my doing, I hate them) and all I've learnt is that they are minefields for employers and employees.
On the face of it there's not much she can do but I suppose it would depend on the wording of her 'contract'.

Sorry just realised you've said she has worked the same hours every week for ages. That does put a different complexion on things, because (according to the advice given to me) this means that her terms and conditions of employment have changed in practice.
I'm still not clear how this would make much difference for the rotas just for a couple of weeks though. Someone else may know...

Constructive dismissal would be a bit drastic for something like that.

Her best bet if she wants to take action would be to try and demonstrate that in effect she is no longer on a zero hours contract as she has consistently worked the same hours for two years, and on that basis it is a breach of contract not paying her for however many Sundays it is as she is willing and able to work.

Her first step would be to put in a grievance to that effect.

Thanks for the advice.

No she hasn't been dismissed. This is just the latest of a whole series of issues and she is about ready to walk. I'm not sure if they are not putting her on the rota for 2 or 3 weeks. She is not the only one that has been affected by this; at least a couple of other regular 'part timers' who have other jobs appear to be in the same boat.

There was no notice of that this was going to happen and she wasn't given the opportunity to work additional shifts, although there would have been a limit as to what extra shifts she could have done as she has a full time job elsewhere.

As she ordinarily only works a Sunday and a Sunday is not one of the Christmas/new year pubic holidays she feels rather upset and can ill afford to loose the pay at this time of year in particular.

PrincessGwenny, if you're genuine about what you're doing and really want to know, you can use Advanced Search to find more of the many, many threads on MN about zero hours contracts.

You can also contact MNHQ and pay £30 to set up a proper sponsored thread directing people to your questionnaire and also getting more general replies on the thread. (People will soon tell you if your questionnaire is missing something important.)

I'm going to PM you this post, as I don't know if you'll come back to the thread.

Update on this thread. She has still not been offered any work since December other than on the Sunday that she had booked as holiday earlier in the year.

ACAS are now involved.

But if she is on a zero hour contract they are not obliged to give her any shifts if the business does not require her on that rota.

Thanks for the update, Polly. I'll be interested to see how this pans out.

Good luck to your friend.

Hi, I hope someone would be able to help me....

I'm with my company for nearly 3 years now on zero contract hours however for the past 2-2.5 years I was working there 5 days per week, 8h per day, each week.
All changed once I become pregnant (I'm 36 weeks now) My hours has been cut from 8h to 7.5, later to 6, 4 and now to 3.5h per day. I have to add that just my hours has been reduced , no other employee has been affected by this ....They employed a new girl as my replacement about 2 months ago and week by week I was given less and less hours in my department- office job .

Yesterday I have got my new rota for next week and they moved me to another department- to the restaurant. I spoken to my Manager and he said he doesn't need to give me any hours and my hours has been cut because they need to trained new girl for her to be able to do my job as I'm going in 2 weeks on maternity leave and there is no hours available for both of us.
I left his office crying and he went after me, shut the door ( I was on my own in the room) and he raised his voice saying to me why I left his office not even saying thank you ( ?!) , who do I think I'm, if he is talking to me I must look at him because he is my manager etc....I didn't say anything because I couldn't stop crying so he said he wants me to go home immediately.
I'm obviously still upset the way how he spoken to me and I'm worry this whole situation will affect my baby as I can't stop thinking about it etc...
I'm planning to write grievance letter to him and and also I would like to start my maternity leave from this Monday ( 2 weeks earlier than planned) however I'm not sure if this is possible? ( apparently I need to give my employer notice) if I can do this where should I go and who do I ask and do I need to give a reason to do so??
Thank you

I think I would be ringing ACAS Cleo as if you worked the same pattern and hours for a year plus then I'm sure your terms and conditions change on your contract. I'm not sure about the notice but you could ask as if there isn't enough work for you and new girl then it won't make a difference will it.

Further update, after ACAS becoming involved they have suddenly offered her her old shift and round. Apparently it was all a misunderstanding on their part and more recently they had interpreted that she was not available between two holiday dates rather than she was taking leave for two particular Sundays a few weeks apart!