Unpaid Work

TheBodFather

I was just wondering, My girlfriend is Polish and works for a retail company. Regularly they are kept back for up to 45minutes to clean up after the shop is closed without being paid for this. The reason I mentioned my girlfriends nationality is because all her co workers are either Polish or students and I reckon the company is treating them unfairly in the knowledge that they can get away with it. I was just wondering if it was legal to force workers to work for 45minutes unpaid?

Reloc8

No its not. Issues arise under the Organisation of Working Time legislation, their contracts, and the law stuff generally.

They should go to a solicitor, who will likely advise on a claim to a Rights Commissioner for back pay amongst other things.

TheBodFather

Well heres the thing my girlfriend says despite working for them full time shes never signed a contract?

Tester46

TheBodFather wrote: »

Well heres the thing my girlfriend says despite working for them full time shes never signed a contract?

Go to a solicitor. The store might say this is included in her pay, she might say it isn't = legal dispute = go to a solicitor for guidance on her exact circumstances.

The failure to give her a contract might (emphasize might) be a breach of the employer's obligations.

Reloc8

Yes, I was kind of anticipating that actually - doesn't matter btw, she's working under a contract of employment whether she signed one or not. Failing to provide written terms of employment itself is actionable.

Again, tell her to go to a solicitor. There are probably lots of breaches of employment law here, you can't discuss them in detail here to get advice.

Reloc8

Terms of Employment (Written Information) Act 1994

Exclusions :-

2.—(1) This Act shall not apply to—
( a ) employment in which the employee is normally expected to work for the employer for less than 8 hours in a week, or
( b ) employment in which the employee has been in the continuous service of the employer for less than 1 month.

Otherwise requirement :

3.—(1) An employer shall, not later than 2 months after the commencement of an employee's employment with the employer, give or cause to be given to the employee a statement in writing containing the following particulars of the terms of the employee's employment, that is to say—
( a ) the full names of the employer and the employee,
( b ) the address of the employer in the State or, where appropriate, the address of the principal place of the relevant business of the employer in the State or the registered office (within the meaning of the Companies Act, 1963 ),
( c ) the place of work or, where there is no fixed or main place of work, a statement specifying that the employee is required or permitted to work at various places,
( d ) the title of the job or nature of the work for which the employee is employed,
( e ) the date of commencement of the employee's contract of employment,
( f ) in the case of a temporary contract of employment, the expected duration thereof or, if the contract of employment is for a fixed term, the date on which the contract expires,
( g ) the rate or method of calculation of the employee's remuneration,
( h ) the length of the intervals between the times at which remuneration is paid, whether a week, a month or any other interval,
( i ) any terms or conditions relating to hours of work (including overtime),
( j ) any terms or conditions relating to paid leave (other than paid sick leave),
( k ) any terms or conditions relating to—
(i) incapacity for work due to sickness or injury and paid sick leave, and
(ii) pensions and pension schemes,
( l ) the period of notice which the employee is required to give and entitled to receive (whether by or under statute or under the terms of the employee's contract of employment) to determine the employee's contract of employment or, where this cannot be indicated when the information is given, the method for determining such periods of notice,
( m ) a reference to any collective agreements which directly affect the terms and conditions of the employee's employment including, where the employer is not a party to such agreements, particulars of the bodies or institutions by whom they were made.

In breach :-

7.—(1) An employee may present a complaint to a rights commissioner that his or her employer has contravened section 3, 4, 5 or 6 in relation to him or her and, if he or she does so, the commissioner shall give the parties an opportunity to be heard by the commissioner and to present to the commissioner any evidence relevant to the complaint, shall give a recommendation in writing in relation to it and shall communicate the recommendation to the parties.

Remedies :

7. (2) A recommendation of a rights commissioner under subsection (1) shall do one or more of the following:
( a ) declare that the complaint was or, as the case may be, was not well founded,
( b ) (i) confirm all or any of the particulars contained or referred to in any statement furnished by the employer under section 3, 4, 5 or 6, or
(ii) alter or add to any such statement for the purpose of correcting any inaccuracy or omission in the statement and the statement as so altered or added to shall be deemed to have been given to the employee by the employer,
( c ) require the employer to give or cause to be given to the employee concerned a written statement containing such particulars as may be specified by the commissioner,
( d ) order the employer to pay to the employee compensation of such amount (if any) as is just and equitable having regard to all the circumstances, but not exceeding 4 weeks remuneration in respect of the employee's employment calculated in accordance with regulations under section 17 of the Unfair Dismissals Act, 1977 ,


There's not really any might about it, with all due respect.

edit : sorry that was in response to a post by Tester46 which said that failure to give written contracts might be a breach. Don't know where that post is but anyway there's the legislation.

Tester46

Reloc8 wrote: »

There's not really any might about it, with all due respect.

edit : sorry that was in response to a post by Tester46 which said that failure to give written contracts might be a breach. Don't know where that post is but anyway there's the legislation.

With all due respect, your quote of the Terms of Employment legislation begins with the exclusions. Hence the word "might".

Reloc8

I suppose they could be be doing less than 8 hours a week/ordinarily expected to work for less than an hour and a bit per day, or be employed for less than 1 month, in which case yes there would be no claim under that legislation.

Raekwon

My girlfriend is Czech and she was let go from her job before Christmas and paid NOTHING! (I started a thread about it here).

She has sent a non payment form to the Rights Commissioner but was told that they are only sorting out Novembers backlog of issues at the moment and it could take more then six months for any sort of action to take place.

She is applying for legal aid at the moment cause she has zero cash so hopefully they can help her get what is rightfully hers.

I think employers can basically do what they want in this country because there does not seem to be any deterrent there to prevent them from abusing their staff.

Reloc8

Mmm...wouldn't agree with you - there's a whole heap of legislation out there which is applied extremely strictly by Rights Commissioners, Employment Appeals Tribunal, Labour Court and Equality Officer. Helps if you can go to a solicitor though - and yes it will usually take six months for a complaint to come up before a Rights Commissioner.

InReality

Yes the legislation is there , but I don't think it has much of a deterrent effect.

Tester46

InReality wrote: »

Yes the legislation is there , but I don't think it has much of a deterrent effect.

To be fair, it has a deterrent effect on a lot of employers who don't even try treating their staff illegally, because they know the employees have access to Rights Commissioners, etc. Of course a lot of employers don't actually want to treat their staff badly at all, once they know what the law is.

There will always be exceptions though, who will treat their employees badly and hope to get away with it. That's why complainants should pursue their cases fully.

All just my opinion of course.