Is it legal to give your hours to other workers?

[user1471504821]

Just had this happen to me for the second time in 2 months- started work on 34 hours in Sept now down to 19 because others are short on hours, so some of my hours have been taken off me to give to them. My contract is that of a worker with no guarantee of hours, but have worked for the company for over 15 years. Now faced with an income I can't live on and frantically applying for jobs.

Unfortunately, if you have no minimum in your contract then it's perfectly legal.

From what you have written is it a 0 hour contract you are on?

Contact acas, as you may be at "detriment" if your usual hours are now reduced

Thankyou, will contact union and mention this 'detriment'. Feel like I have lived on constant knife edge for years fearing loss of hours but this is the worst plummet yet. I have the union investigating whether I can get redundancy but unfortunately as I'm classed as a worker I'm not eligible.

If you’ve been working a set number of hours consistently for a long time those may have become your contractual hours by what’s called “custom and practice”. Is that the case?

Unfortunately not, they go up and down regularly so you never know where you are. Thanks for the reply, all feels a bit hopeless.

Ok in that case they aren’t “your” hours, so your employer is free to give them to whoever. Sounds like they are trying to be fair and balance out the number of hours people have, if the reason is others are short, although I appreciate that’s tough for you.