zero hour contract hell

[deakymom]

so in a nutshell my husband got a job after 18 months unemployed he was told at interview he could have 36- 48 hours a week permanent contract they wanted him to do some night shifts he agreed but asked to do no more than two night shifts a week as he has a young family they willingly agreed as long as he could be flexible which he agreed to so it began

it was great then there was ramadan and everyone wanted time off so he ended up working 6 back to back 12/13 hour night shifts then they had him do a 16 hour shift followed by a 12 hour shift he has worked a day shift a day to night shift and a night shift over three days these are never less than 12 hours he is still in his three month trial period and technically still training

today he found out its actually a zero hour contract and they are hiring more people and contracting out work he is worried his hours are going to drop we are panicking and no idea what to do he told them at interview he can't take a zero hour contract he is the only wage earner in the house we have three children we need a steady income they lied he spoke to one of his coworkers who told him the last person who complained doesn't work for the company anymore they suddenly became a bad worker and was given no hours and is no longer employed by the company

so we have no recourse right? do we give up and sign back on again as much as i hate to say it we need to make sure the rent is paid we have three kids 14/5/18 months we need to keep a roof over their heads the five year old has issues the one year old has a heart problem we just needed a steady job!

any advice?

no help?

Has he actually got his contract?

What does his contract say ?

Don't give up, wait til he gets his contract. You will have an issue if he leaves the job as he won't be able to sign on. Right now he's getting paid really well with all those hours?

If he starts to only do 20/30 hours a week you will get more tax credit? Income support if it falls too low?

he hasn't got his contract yet so we are still hoping job centre said he cant just leave because they lied to him the hours have only dropped by six in a fortnight so far so its still okay we are desperately looking for new employment

How can he be working with no contract?

My husband recently left a job because he was on a zero hours contract. When he started he was getting lots of hours but gradually these dropped significantly to the point where he was getting 10 or less. He works in catering and the whole c

Oops! What I was going to say was that although the laws that are in place don't apply any less, in practice there is a real lack of structure, unless you work for a chain, which makes it really difficult to address issues. His main problem was that when he started, he signed a 37 hour contract - which mysteriously disappeared and the apparent zero hours contract never appeared either! In your husbands case, he should look for another job - he won't be able to just leave and immediately access benefits again.

job centre said he cant just leave because they lied to him

This says it all really. Government departments colluding with dishonest employers and penalising the 'hard working families' they purport to support.

For future reference - don't let him start working anywhere before he gets the paperwork! It's easy enough to email a contract to someone these days if the post will take too long. If he starts working, even if he hasn't signed anything, he is deemed to have accepted those terms and conditions.