Bad working conditions

sushmita

Hi, I know that in this difficult time we should be happy of keeping our job no matter what it is, but what I've been experiencing in the office where I'm working at the moment is inhuman and it happened also before the recession. We work from 8/9 in the morning depending, our time of business is not too bad alright as we all live by 5-5.30, but it's the tight deadlines that put us under so much pressure. Basically our deadline is at 3 pm and until that time we rush and we have to prepare everything on time and we cannot have lunchbreak, not even time to go to the bathroom. After 3 still you have to be around just in case (I was once chased in the bathroom and called on my mobile when I went to buy a sandwich!). In our contract it says that we're entitled to have an hour break, but basically nobody has that break, so it means that we all work one extra hour everyday for free. By the health point of view, after more than a year, I think I reached the limit and I'll either have a breakdown or a heart attack, sometimes I don't feel well at all. If I don't stop for at least half an hour and have a decent break with food, I start feeling my head dizzy and not feeling good at all.
I was wondering if there's any place I can make a complaint. HR in our company just don't care, they know we all work in these conditions.
Thank you for your help

the_syco

What are do you work in? IT, finance, data entry, or something different?

sushmita

Hi, I work in finance

Nolanger

What are my Rights?
As an employee, you are entitled to receive certain basic employment rights. Although some industries entitle employees to different rights, the list below is the minimum you should receive.


A written statement of terms and conditions of employment. Whilst the full contract does not have to be in writing, certain terms and conditions of your employment must be stated in writing within two months of starting employment. These would typically include the method of calculating pay and whether or not there is a sick pay scheme in operation. (For fixed term employees it would also include in what circumstances your employment will come to an end.)

A written statement of pay or ‘payslip’. Your payslip should set out gross pay and list all deductions made from it.

A minimum wage
Most experienced adult workers in Ireland are entitled to be paid €8.65 per hour. There are however, some exceptions to the minimum wage, including those employed by close relatives, those aged under 18 and trainees or apprentices.


There are also certain industries in Ireland where a higher minimum wage applies, including the construction industry. Further information on these industries is available from our industry specific pages.


A maximum working week average of 48 hours a week
The maximum 48 hour week is based on an average calculated over a four, six, or twelve-month period depending on the industry. Your employer must keep a record of how many hours you work.


Unpaid breaks during working hours
You have the right to a 15-minute break if working four and a half hours of work and a 30-minute break if working six hours of work.

Annual leave from work
Full-time workers have the right to four working weeks paid annual leave per year. Part-time workers have the right to a proportional amount of annual leave based on the amount of time they work.

A minimum amount of notice before dismissal
You are entitled to a minimum amount of notice if your employment ceases. The minimum amount of notice depends on the length of service

http://www.employmentrights.ie/en/informationforemployees/whataremyrights/

timmywex

check out the organisation of working time act 1997

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1997/en/act/pub/0020/index.html

snellers

entitlements and what is currently 'expected' are two very different things. At present it is as we all know an employers market......Sushimita I understand your predicament....bottom line is you can and are of course entitled to go for lunch.

at present there is no nice way to say that you either get the job done by whatever means necessary to keep you in the position....or you run the risk of the company finding a way to replace you. I must stress I am 100% against this despicable approach to employees as I have been in a similar position.

am really sorry but cannot think of any easy answer....you make a complaint....its not gonna help your future I would have thought **even though by law you are 100% in the right** your health however is most important...easy to say i know but you should (if not already) be looking elsewhere for employment IMO...it will take a lot longer to find somewhere but if you don;t start you will never find a way out

if in your position i would maybe approach a direct manager and disuss the option of having at least 30mins off after the deadline has passed....you then get out of the office and dont answer phone.

best of luck whatever you do

Mrs OBumble

Do you belong to a union? Can you get them involved?

Talk to your colleagues: What would happen if ALL the workers forced the issue and insisted on a 1/2 hour lunch break? They can get rid of individuals, but not everyone all at once.

Are there any ways that the work could be arranged so that it gets done more efficiently?

amen

Having worked somewhere like this its nearly all down to bad management.

Your manager should be making sure you are getting your breaks, that you have a proper lunch etc

sushmita

I'm sorry I'm replying only now, I've been so exhausted from work as you can imagine by my initial message. Now it's Sunday and finally I reply you all. By the way thank you so much for all your contributions.
No, I don't belong to any trade union. Having a break after the deadline would be too late for me anyway as this would be at 3 pm. By that time I'd be fainted probably or collapsing, seriously. I feel more and more exhausted, I probably mentioned that my colleagues are at least 10 years younger than me. That makes a difference. I'm afraid I'll have a breakdown or either my health will suffer a lot.
In relation to changing my job, I'm actually looking around. As you know the market is very poor at the moment and the few contacts I get are about the same job, so I don't think it's really worth it doing the same job somewhere else. They promise big things like for this position and now see how it is like. I'm keeping a look at internal opportunities to see if there's something less hectic, although there's not so much going on, but I keep checking.
I was just wondering if there was a health board or something like that where I could address my queries or if I have to wait and have a heart attack before possibly suing them or something like that. Sorry, I don't mean to sound so tragic, but that's the point basically. I thought there was a way to have companies checked in this way. Complaints were done long time ago and managers were promising to get things better, there were better and worse times, but now with the recession, they're not hiring anymore and that means, again, more work for us.

legs11

get together with your co workers

and fire off an email to management tell them your rights ie: working lunch break

its a basic necessity, resession or not

its not acceptable tbh, i would not take that ****

Nolanger

Sounds like you were all screened at interview stage to take this kind of sh*t. Bunch of wimps.

Mrs OBumble

sushmita wrote: »

No, I don't belong to any trade union.

... I probably mentioned that my colleagues are at least 10 years younger than me. That makes a difference. I'm afraid I'll have a breakdown or either my health will suffer a lot.
....
I was just wondering if there was a health board or something like that where I could address my queries or if I have to wait and have a heart attack before possibly suing them or something like that. Sorry, I don't mean to sound so tragic, but that's the point basically. I thought there was a way to have companies checked in this way.

Your colleagues age is irrelevant: no one has to put up with that sort of treatment.

I'm not aware of any health-board involvement in employment conditions. You could try talking to your GP, who would probably put you on sick leave for a while. This may or may not help to wake management up.

You could try contacting NERA. Not sure if they can help or not, but it may.

Personally I recommend union membership, unions are the sort of organisation that is experienced at getting workers together to deal with situations like this.

wmpdd3

Though I do sympathize with your situation you normal day is a light day in retail so I can't see what a union could do for you.

If you do get your lunch then you will be there till 8pm.

Can you renegotiate your contract?

Could you be paid based on output?

Is all work divided up equally?