Can my boss cut down on my hours?

daveyie84

I’ve been working part time as a sales assistant in a wine shop for the last three years. Recently my boss started cutting my hours down from 15 hours a week down to 10 hours. I asked him to give me more hours and he said he will, but never did.

He is given 60 hours to divide between 4 part timers for the week. He started giving 20 hours to two of the part timers and 10 hours to the other two (me being one of them). He’s cutting down on my hours even though I’ve been working there the longer than the rest.

I confronted him about this and he said that he’s cutting down on my hours because I’ve bad time keeping and I am not showing as much interest in wine as the others.

Because of college I do arrive late regularly by about ten minutes. He knows I’m in college until late and never said he had a problem with it. He never called me up on being late before and only told me this when he was confronted. I told I’ll rearrange my time table to make it in on time in the future.
The part timers getting extra hours have started doing a new wine tasting course which I haven’t done but I told him I’d be interested if I can fit it in. Getting to the place it’s held is awkward for me.

My boss is a reasonable guy, I get on well with him and I see where he’s coming from. But if he’s been giving me 15 hours a week for the last three years is he allowed to cut my hours without saying anything to me? Could he cut my hours down to 5 or less because I can’t make it out to the new wine course while the others can? It seems like I’d be pushed out of the shop because they just changed the rules.

Can anyone tell me if there is anything wrong here or can he cut my hours down when he wants?

padser

Short answer is no - if you have worked for three years on 15 hours a week its quite difficult for him to cut your hours, and can't do it in the manner prescribed. Essentially its contrary to the unfair dismissal act.

SarahMc

I disagree, short answer is yes. The unfair dismissal Act does not apply.

Wishbone Ash

padser wrote: »

Essentially its contrary to the unfair dismissal act.

The OP has not been dismissed.

OP - do you have a written contract or terms and conditions of employment?


(And why not respect the readers of your post by using normal print).

daveyie84

Wishbone Ash wrote: »

The OP has not been dismissed.

OP - do you have a written contract or terms and conditions of employment?


(And why not respect the readers of your post by using normal print).

There is a contract but it says nothing about hours per week. I checked a booklet on Protection of Employees (Part time) Act that I found on the web. It said "any unfavourable change in the conditions of employment of the employee" constitutes as penalisation of an employee. Would this count?

(My post wasn't normal print because I copy pasted it. I didn't think it would be considered disrespectful or cause offence.)

Wishbone Ash

daveyie84 wrote: »

There is a contract but it says nothing about hours per week. I checked a booklet on Protection of Employees (Part time) Act that I found on the web. It said "any unfavourable change in the conditions of employment of the employee" constitutes as penalisation of an employee. Would this count?

Perhaps if you discuss it with your boss and casually mention the Protection of Employees (Part Time) Act he may change his mind. The fact that you have been working there for 3 years without a major problem, should stand in your favour. If you boss had a problem with you being 10 minutes late, he should have brought it to you attention before now.

(Just wondering - when you are 10 mins late, does that mean someone else, who you are relieving, has to work 10 mins extra?)

daveyie84 wrote:

(My post wasn't normal print because I copy pasted it. I didn't think it would be considered disrespectful or cause offence.)

Fair enough.

tricky D

daveyie84 wrote: »

There is a contract but it says nothing about hours per week. I checked a booklet on Protection of Employees (Part time) Act that I found on the web. It said "any unfavourable change in the conditions of employment of the employee" constitutes as penalisation of an employee. Would this count?

Even though your hours are not explicitly set in your contract, they are implicitly in the contract 'by practice', esp after 3 years. 'By practice' is the legal bit here. Effectively, it appears that you are being penalised illegally in the sense that you have never been disciplined in line with the requirements set out in employment law.

daveyie84

When I'm late there is no one to be relieved. Sometimes they might have to run the shop on their own (its a slow shop). No one ever complained.

Wishbone Ash

You appear to have a strong case but it may be better to speak to your boss first before engaging any employment law.

daveyie84

I have spoke with him and told him I think its unfair but said nothing about the law to him. He said he'll see what he can do. I wanted to know, if there is no change, did he do anything wrong in the eyes of the law.