pub laws on workers

turkey46

Is it legal for a pub to not pay staff beyond 2.am even though staff are required to work as late as 5.am to clean?

Also is it legal to require you to work two nights with no pay as a 'trial'?

murrayp4

turkey46 wrote: »

Is it legal for a pub to not pay staff beyond 2.am even though staff are required to work as late as 5.am to clean?

Also is it legal to require you to work two nights with no pay as a 'trial'?

1st Q- if the worker is on a salary, possibly. If you're on an hourly rate you are entitled to be paid for every hour worked. I thought this rubbish of not paying for 'cleanup time' in bars was a thing of the past...

2nd Q. It depends on whether you agreed to work without pay for the trial shift.

turkey46

Well its definitely not a thing of the past in one pub that i know of. I didn't agree to work for a trial but I was told I wasn't getting paid for any of that night when I asked. I worked from 5 until 3.15 on a saturday night in a popular, busy, city pub for free. Apparently, their policy is two nights trial but I fail to see why a 2nd night is even necessary. If I can do the job on the busiest night of the week then I can surely do it any other night. I never agreed to work for free but they made that decision.

Also, at the end of the night my section of the clean-up was the bathrooms and you can imagine what they are like on a saturday nite. I was also asked to contribute to the tills as there were down.

What's my legal stance?

Jarndyce

turkey46 wrote: »

I didn't agree to work for a trial but I was told I wasn't getting paid for any of that night when I asked.

Apparently, their policy is two nights trial

I never agreed to work for free but they made that decision.

If you only learned afterward that this is their policy then therefore you couldn't have agreed to it. Thus, it is an implied term that you would be paid for the work done. I wouldn't accept that if they only told you afterward. If they told you beforehand, then you may have consented to that term.

turkey46 wrote: »

I was also asked to contribute to the tills as there were down.

What's my legal stance?

http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1991/en/act/pub/0025/sec0005.html#zza25y1991s5

Above is the relevant provision.

Presuming that you have a contract of employment, your employer cannot make any deductions from your wages or demand that you contribute to the tills unless it is specified in the contract. Such provisions are often included in the contracts of bank tellers, post office workers etc.

If your contract contains no such provision and if you are again asked to make such a contribution, your answer should be an emphatic 'no'.

Tom Young

We don't do legal advice. Don't seek it and those responders above, don't give it.

Bans are coming.