Okay, guys - how's this for a give with one hand, take with the other!?

[zisforzebra]

My DH works part time, minimum wage job for a multi-national retailer.

They recently sent round an email saying that they were generously introducing the new minimum wage level and the new holiday time allowance early. All good you might think...

They then ended the email by saying that obviously these new things were going to cost the company money so to recoup these costs there would be no overtime payments for bank holiday shifts and if you want the day off, you have to take it out of your annual holiday.

Not amused at all.

Is that legal?

That was my very first question after he told me!

who are they? name and shame!
That is very mean indeed. is it allowed?!

I'm guessing unfortunately that that's what lots of employers will do once the new holiday rules come in!

It might be worth finding out...i mean, after the dominoes pizza thing on tv, who's to say other companies aren't being just as underhand?

I didn't hear about the Dominoes Pizza thing. What happened there?

I'm pondering on naming and shaming but I don't want to drop him in it!

Well i didn't catch it all, but they were hiring immigrants who didn't know their rights, and docking money from their wages for all sorts of reasons, including buying the uniform (which they had to wear), and taking debts straight out of wages - often when they weren't even the debt of that person, but of a friend that had left the country!

Yes my boss has done a complicated sum, so my colleague remains on the old minimum wage level, the extra going in to her equivalent of national insurance. She usually does 9 hours a week, the new rate is 15 cents up (about 10pence) per hour. And since he has had emergency surgery she has done extra hours with a slipped disc. Eejit!

GodzillasBC - Flippin' Heck! They're not quite that bad!

DH is home now and says I can name them - Blockbuster Entertainment

What does his contract of employment say about bank holidays? Does it say that they are given in addition to annual leave? If it does, then they can't now insist that they must be taken out of their annual leave as that is a breach of contract. They can only do it if the employee agrees to the change.

Even if it isn't written into their contract, if they have always allowed them overtime for bank holidays, that could be deemed to be a term of their employment and again they can't change it without the employee's agreement.

If they do it anyway, your dh should raise a grievance and ultimately bring a claim to an employment tribunal. Oh and look for a better job!

I would think the contract says [number] days annual leave plus bank holidays, if they were extra.

Because the law says 24 days which can include bank holidays, as long as employees get the right number of days off, there is no breach of contract.

The only issue would be if the contract said something like 'current statutory minimum annual leave allowance plus bank holidays'. Then of course when the statutory amount goes up, the individual leave allowance does as well. It would be surprising if that were the case though.

But if the contract currently says 20 days plus bank holidays, there is no need to make any changes, as long as employees get at least 24 paid days off in the year, which of course they would.

The overtime is a different issue - presumably by overtime you mean time and a half or similar, rather than just normal rate? In which case if it's usual to pay extra for those working bank holiday shifts then it's not ok just to change that without any consultation etc.

I would presume for a multi national retailer there will be unions involved in any changes to contracts though?

Freckle/Flowery - Thanks for the feedback.

I'm not sure what the contract says about bank holiday days and annual leave (will have to dig out a copy and have a look) but it is written into the contract that bank holidays are paid at double time. Given that bank holidays are the only time they get paid double time (when the only day of the year they are shut is christmas day) this is the bit that's really annoying.

Apparently they are going through a consulation process but he seems to think that it will just get accepted since the consulation will mostly be done with managers/assistant managers who are salaried anyway and aren't affected.

Flowerybeanbag - no unions. They have an employee talk back panel where staff representatives for each store give their view on any changes.

Freckle - I've been hoping he'll get a better job for 11 years but he enjoys it, loves films and is very good at what he does. He's happy there mostly and it gives him time to be a SAHD and work on a book.