Confused by new job cobtract

[ZeroHourOrNot]

Hello

I started a new job in March. As far as I knew it was a zero hour contract as I haven’t signed to a set number of hours per week and also am not bank staff. I spoke to my HR dept yesterday as I needed to find out what I need to do for a working weekend I can’t work in the summer as I will not have childcare for that weekend. I have been told that I am “not technically” on a zero hour contract but I am given regular clients and regular hours so therefore in their eyes, i am obliged to cover my weekly hours.

Essentially what they’re saying is that I need to swop my working weekend and work the one before, and this is something I will need to do every time I’m not able to work if I don’t use holiday.

Ive had a look at the ACAS website and it says on there that zero hour contracted employees have the right to decline work, and visa versa for employers.

The problem is that they are saying it’s “not technically” a Zero Hour contract, but at the top of my contract, in the right had corner, it says Zero Hours Contract. Unfortunately I had missed this as it’s so small, when I phoned them.

So, are they wrong in what they say? Can I decline to work a day I’m due to work if I give enough notice? Do I legally have to work the shifts they give me or forfeit my days off if I need to be at home because of childcare? I ask because sometimes my husband goes away for work and it can clash with my shifts and I need that safety net of knowing I can decline a shift but not have to stress about when I can re fit it in.

Advice very much welcomed.

How far in advance are your shifts agreed?

You can decline to work a weekend, but then your employer is under no obligation to offer further work.

My daughter is on zero hours but her shifts are agreed a month in advance. Once she has agreed a shift then she has to request the time off if she is unavailable.

They send out rotas on a Friday for the next day through to the next Friday.

Basically I’m trying to work out if if I give (for example) 2 weeks notice that I can’t do a day that I know I should be working, is why can I not just decline to work it and what do I need to swop the days around?

Im not unreasonable to expect to wake up one day and just not do the work! I always aim to give as much notice as possible but I’ve been told before that I wouldn’t swop my days off when I needed to to attend an important evening appointment. I gave 10 days notice on that one and they rang 2 days before rotas were issued to say no.

Do you have an email contact for HR? Send them an email saying that you are confused about a phone conversation that you had with X. Say that you are attaching a scan of the first page of your contract where it clearly says 'zero hours'. Ask them to respond by email their understanding of whether you can turn down shifts with advance notice, given that it's a zero hours contract, so that you can seek further advice from an outside agency eg ACAS. Tell them that you will not be discussing this verbally with them, only in writing or by email, as you find verbal conversations to be unclear.

I have a general HR email address which is replied to be whoever opens the email and if your reply to it, you don’t necessarily get a reply from the person you replied to!

Ah feel for you, I worked summer 2019 as a hotel receptionist with regular full-time week's of shift patterns all on supposedly zero hours, I swear the hotels head office had no idea what it really meant, but to the point I actually had an employment contract in black and white repeatedly that said 'zero hours' whilst I never was in the situation of turning down a shift but by heck when I came to leave a few months later; I was asked for a month's notice totally unexpected!! Some sectors really don't understand what zero hours means and in the end I had to come to the conclusion that should a hotel ever had have no guests that's really when 'zero hours' would have kicked in. I certainly don't recall ever being able freely to turn down a shift in reliance on the 'zero hours' as my side.