8 hour contracts... 20+ hours expected

[Anonymum40]

I was super happy to get a job working in a local shop on an 8 hour contract. I run my own business but it is very solitary and I wanted this job to get me out of the house. Mind you on my first day the boss asks how many hours can she put me down for and suggests 20! I might be naive but I thought 8 meant 8 and I don't have time for 20! I could do 12-16 at a push but am I naive? What would you expect in this situation???

Ds has been given 4 hr and 8 hr contracts in retail - it seemed in reality they wanted him to do a lot more hours but didn't want to hold themselves to that...it's their way of not committing themselves to more hours.

Just say 8.
they can always get someone else.

I would have thought it was 8 too. I’d probably thank them for considering you for the extra hours but this month (/week) you’d like to ease into the new role by doing just 8 and maybe increasing them at a later stage. I’d probably mention that you have other commitments and this isn’t your sole job too. I feel for people who rely on these jobs, you’d think you could take two, know you have 16 hours work, but the expectation could be 40 hours?!

That’s normal. They contract you to 8 but you work over normally and then when it comes to sick pay, holiday pay, maternity pay etc you get 8. You’ve worked full time all year but you get paid your contacted only.

Plus they expect total flexibility from you but don’t in turn offer it to you, which screws your ability to get another part time job.

It's what they do instead of zero hour contracts.
4 hours seems to be the most common but they basically expect your to do more and it's usually 'flexible' - in other words any day/hours. Completely random.
This is why retailers are often short staffed. No one wants this shit.

And the frustrating thing is these companies are proud of their ethical stance against zero hours contracts. I'm quite sure there’s a policy of keeping hours below Employers NI limit to save costs.

Like a PP says, they do it so they don't have to pay you loads of holiday pay, sick pay etc.

Yep, they are milking the system. Contract for 8 , work 8.

At my work we do the short hour contracts too but I clearly explain to people what it actually means and we agree shifts between ourselves.
I dont ever expect people to pick up random shifts and more hours than they've agreed to, we do the rota 3 weeks in advance so everyone knows what they're doing.
Holiday pay is paid on an average of what you actually work not the contract and I think this is law.
I work for a big Company, the contract thing isn't of my doing btw.

I have 8 hour contracts in my team. In a normal week, that’s what they’d get. During holidays or busy periods, they will be offered extra hours.
Be honest they you can’t only do 8-12 hours. I’d rather know someone couldn’t commit to extra. It removes me offering them extra shifts and them feeling stressed about taking them. I also have people who would happily have all the shifts available but we can’t afford them on a higher contract all year. They can get other work to supplement and I’m mindful of being v reasonable if they need certain shifts to do so.

Hi, thanks to everyone that replied. I'm getting quite stressed about this but I'm going to have to explain to the boss that 8 means 8 -12 for me and if that's no good then I'll have to leave. If they'd said at the interview that 8 means 20 I wouldn't have taken it in the first place. They just asked how flexible I was, and I'm happy to do weekends/ evenings whatever but there is a limit. I hate confrontation. But I was told they had 80+ applicants for 3 jobs and after all that they're still desperately looking for more staff so maybe others are wiser than me...

Well the easy answer to this is that you applied for a job where it was stated in the ad, JD and now the contract that you would work 8 hours.

So you tell them you are available for 8 hours and no more.

And no it is not ''normal'' as some people have stated...Don't encourage dodgy employers to find ways to exploit people.

I would simply walk if they start causing you problems for sticking to what you agreed to in the first place.

It wouldn't even be up for discussion if it was me. If it was advertised at 8 hours and the contract stated 8 I'd be sticking to that.

What is the matter with employers these days? Do they have no idea what staffing levels they need until 5 minutes before the shop opens?

Salaries, hours, expectations all need to be a bit more transparent, don't they?