Is it mandatory for staff to get paid at staff meetings

mcgarry098

Hi, Im workin in a place where i get 5 hours a week paid at €6:56 an hour. the employers wants me to spend 2 hours every week at a staff meeting unpaid. Is this legal. When we said that its ridiculous to attend a staff meeting every week for so long when we're getting such little hours, our manager replied saying "thats how it is, if you dont come to the meetings i'll just get new staff".


Is there anything we can do to get paid for going to these meetings, is there any laws that protect us!
(all 6 members of staff feel the same way)

harry21

I dont think it is but I dont know for sure.

Also why are you on less than mim. wage?

mcgarry098

im 17 so i think that is the bare minimum wage for my age! I dont think there is either, but its awful thinking that your doing work for free when your getting no hours anyway!

freeze4real

2 f'ing hours for a staff meeting.

MonaghanPenguin

What kind of minimum wage job needs a two hour staff meeting? That's absurd!

omen80

mcgarry098 wrote: »

Hi, Im workin in a place where i get 5 hours a week paid at €6:56 an hour. the employers wants me to spend 2 hours every week at a staff meeting unpaid. Is this legal. When we said that its ridiculous to attend a staff meeting every week for so long when we're getting such little hours, our manager replied saying "thats how it is, if you dont come to the meetings i'll just get new staff".


Is there anything we can do to get paid for going to these meetings, is there any laws that protect us!
(all 6 members of staff feel the same way)

You might want to check to see if you should be getting paid at least minimum wage? Not sure if it applies to people under 18 but worth looking into.....

mcgarry098

ya its staff meeting plus our manager givin us "training"... nope 6 :56 is the minium wage for 16-18 year olds!

x in the city

tell him screw himself.

2 hour staff meeting on min wage

....

riiiight..!

fatalll

if you have to be there it should be considered work, so you should be paid
not sure why ye have a 2 hour meeting every week.

just my 2c worth

drunkmonkey

MonaghanPenguin wrote: »

What kind of minimum wage job needs a two hour staff meeting? That's absurd!

A Job with young untrained staff?

Just playing devils advocate but as an employer minimum wage is absurd as nobody is worth 6 or 20 euro an hour until they prove it.

At 17 op is gaining valuable life experience both good and bad in this instance.

mcgarry098

drunkmonkey wrote: »

A Job with young untrained staff?

Just playing devils advocate but as an employer minimum wage is absurd as nobody is worth 6 or 20 euro an hour until they prove it.

At 17 op is gaining valuable life experience both good and bad in this instance.

are you serious! If your workin you should be paid ! you cant exchange experience at the bank. i would happily tell him to go screw himself but then that would be the job gone and the money i get from it keeps me happy! its unfair though and they're really takin advantage of the amount of people looking for jobs.

mcgarry098

oh nd drunken monkey, whats wrong with young staff, you try gettin 50 year olds to do a few hours work of lifting things and see who comes out the best!,,. and untrained for a small part of the job which we werent originally employed to do.

greendom

So your boss who is paying you the minimum wage expects you to to work virtually 30% of your hours for free. Amazing what they can get away with these days.

IsThisIt???

drunkmonkey wrote: »

A Job with young untrained staff?

Just playing devils advocate but as an employer minimum wage is absurd as nobody is worth 6 or 20 euro an hour until they prove it.

At 17 op is gaining valuable life experience both good and bad in this instance.

Utter crap to be honest.
Getting someone to work for that little an hour, with that few hours a week and you think he should just be happy to be getting the experience. He is doing the work and giving up his time so should be paid for that.

It's not like the op is doing a job that requires significant training (by the sounds of it). If you are working in a shop or something of the sort the untrained bit isn't that bit a deal. And what is wrong with young staff, at least they will be willing to do the few hours a week for that money whereas an older person would be better off on the dole.

opinion guy

OP

do you have this in writing ? email anything like that ?
Try and get it in writing if you can.

If you have it in writing then you just tell him you'll be taking him to court if he tries to enforce it. But don't say that unless you have some way to prove it

mcgarry098

greendom wrote: »

So your boss who is paying you the minimum wage expects you to to work virtually 30% of your hours for free. Amazing what they can get away with these days.

The employers arent short of money either to say the least. greed

mikemac

Completly taking advantage here, it's not on

Can the six of you get organized and put your view across together?

Getting this in writing is good too but I'm sure this employer will avoid that

mcgarry098

No he only said it by mouth,. We would all pull together but our contracts are up next sunday so we want to wait for them to be renewed (which we were told they would be) before we do anything! Ive only been working there six weeks so say they renew my contract can they get rid of me for no reason during the period of the new contract, or would that count as an unfair dismissal. or do I have to wait 2 years before ive any rights.

We did say this to our manager at the last staff meeting and he said if you dont come to the meetings he'll get new staff, and he said it very thickly and left us all with the view that he's a complete sosiopathic dick! ( which he did think he was a bit before he said that anyway)

MonaghanPenguin

drunkmonkey wrote: »

A Job with young untrained staff?

Just playing devils advocate but as an employer minimum wage is absurd as nobody is worth 6 or 20 euro an hour until they prove it.

At 17 op is gaining valuable life experience both good and bad in this instance.

So you're saying that everyone should start off working for free? Please tell me you're joking. And I'd buy that young untrained staff might need some initial training. But two hours EVERY week. There's no minimum wage job that needs that. If it needs that much training then he should be hiring more experienced people and paying them better.

Noo

That is the biggest load of bull i have ever heard. One bit of initial training, or a meeting every few months but 2 hours unpaid EVERY WEEK. He is completely taking advantage of you and is not worth working for. Have you tried looking for a similar job elsewhere, i guarantee they would not treat you as badly, that man is just greedy and taking advantage of this young workers. The 6 of you should refuse to go and yes he'll threaten to fire you but call his bluff, ask where in your contract does it say you'll work for free and get him for unfair dismissal. So he'll really fire the lot of you, have no staff to run his business and have to shut down for a while while he advertises and organises interviews to replace all his staff, try explaining to potential employees why he is replacing all his staff. I cant see any potential employee agreeing to those wages and that unpaid 2 meeting every week. Call his bluff, the lot of you.

opinion guy

Noo wrote: »

That is the biggest load of bull i have ever heard. One bit of initial training, or a meeting every few months but 2 hours unpaid EVERY WEEK. He is completely taking advantage of you and is not worth working for. Have you tried looking for a similar job elsewhere, i guarantee they would not treat you as badly, that man is just greedy and taking advantage of this young workers. The 6 of you should refuse to go and yes he'll threaten to fire you but call his bluff, ask where in your contract does it say you'll work for free and get him for unfair dismissal. So he'll really fire the lot of you, have no staff to run his business and have to shut down for a while while he advertises and organises interviews to replace all his staff, try explaining to potential employees why he is replacing all his staff. I cant see any potential employee agreeing to those wages and that unpaid 2 meeting every week. Call his bluff, the lot of you.

Oh I wouldn't go calling his bluff like that - I doubt he is bluffing - its very hard to prove any of this stuff if its not in writing. But I would look for another job and when you get one quit this one

Noo

opinion guy wrote: »

Oh I wouldn't go calling his bluff like that - I doubt he is bluffing - its very hard to prove any of this stuff if its not in writing. But I would look for another job and when you get one quit this one

It just really annoys me the way some employers think they get away with this these days, if they have stupid unfair conditions and requirements that the employees dont agree with then its "youre lucky you have a job" or "i'll find someone else to do your job", they think theyre some almighty power that people will do anything to work for and be lucky to have a job, and theyll keep doing it as long a employees go along with their ridiculous demands without question, thats why i think they should stand up for themselves and refuse to do it, and maybe he'll fire them, maybe he wont, but it'll give him the kick up the arse he needs to realise he cant treat his employees like crap because then he'll be left with no one to work for him.

opinion guy

Noo wrote: »

It just really annoys me the way some employers think they get away with this these days, if they have stupid unfair conditions and requirements that the employees dont agree with then its "youre lucky you have a job" or "i'll find someone else to do your job", they think theyre some almighty power that people will do anything to work for and be lucky to have a job, and theyll keep doing it as long a employees go along with their ridiculous demands without question, thats why i think they should stand up for themselves and refuse to do it, and maybe he'll fire them, maybe he wont, but it'll give him the kick up the arse he needs to realise he cant treat his employees like crap because then he'll be left with no one to work for him.

Except the flaw with your analysis is there are tons of people who will work for him.

drunkmonkey

mcgarry098 wrote: »

oh nd drunken monkey, whats wrong with young staff, you try gettin 50 year olds to do a few hours work of lifting things and see who comes out the best!,,. and untrained for a small part of the job which we werent originally employed to do.

Some of the stongest people I know are over 50.

Your getting a bum deal with the 2 free hours, your not getting enough hours, tell him you'd be more than happy to get training but you'd like if you could get more hours to put the training into practice. Ask him on your own if you report directly to him/her

I think 6.56 isn't bad, if your earning 3 times that in 10 years time your doing alright.
You can always look for another job unless you plan on hanging around for a gold watch.

shoegirl

I think you are definitely being exploited, and that you have a right to be paid for any hours which you must spend on the premises doing anything which is job related. However there is no proper way to legally enforce your rights. It would definitely make sense to be on the look out for another job and leave this one when you can.

It is unfortunate that there is no proper mechanism for employees who are asked to do unpaid overtime can use to prevent exploitation of this. At the moment people are very vulnerable, especially young workers like the OP.

mcgarry098

Ya hes completely exploiting us! there is 3 women there who are aged between 40 and 50 and we are all saying it to each other so hopefully once our contracts are renewed we'll take action. I do have another job aswell but its only for a few hours a week, but the jobs together means i have enough money to do most things that i want! My boss in the other job is a legend, and forces me to eat and drink while im workin for him! hes not doing great either but still is generous.

doolox

Make sure you do no actual work during the training period.
Make sure that you get a cert if it is Safepass or Manual Handling, both required for a lot of entry level manual jobs in construction, warehousing or industry.

Safepass or manual handling should take about 1 day each from what I can see on brochures and can cost €100 each to do.

6.65 * 5 = €33.25 pw .....do you pay busfares to get to work?

How many days a week is this done over???

mcgarry098

its done in one night and nope its 5 mins drive from my house! last night at the meeting we all tackled him on it and his words were the reason there doin it cause theres 450000 people willing and more than happy to work.

greendom

How many would be willing and happy to be paid €4.70 an hour ?

bobwozhere

If it was me, I'd be filling out an Inspection Services Complaint Form from here: http://www.employmentrights.ie/en/aboutnera/inspectionservices/

Hopefully, a NERA inspector would then come out and have a chat with the boss.

jackiebaron

drunkmonkey wrote: »

A Job with young untrained staff?

Just playing devils advocate but as an employer minimum wage is absurd as nobody is worth 6 or 20 euro an hour until they prove it.

At 17 op is gaining valuable life experience both good and bad in this instance.

Valuable life experience?.....what are you on about?
He's getting a lesson in exploitation and before you bang on about how lucky he is or some such crap I might remind you that economic downturns are no excuse for a dodgy employer to fcuk over his staff.

username123

The 6 of you should contact FLAC - its free legal advice.

RedXIV

Thing is though, employer is right, plenty other people will work for that. I worked for less than that at his age. I did it because its stupidly difficult to get work when you're under 18.

OP fact is you need to look out for yourself here, and to do that, you need to put up and shut up till you can get another job. You can try throwing a **** storm at work, but I'd be very surprised if your employer was bluffing

jackiebaron

RedXIV wrote: »

Thing is though, employer is right, plenty other people will work for that. I worked for less than that at his age. I did it because its stupidly difficult to get work when you're under 18.

OP fact is you need to look out for yourself here, and to do that, you need to put up and shut up till you can get another job. You can try throwing a **** storm at work, but I'd be very surprised if your employer was bluffing

The employer is NOT right.....he's merely blackmailing his staff because he can. If the minimum wage was say 8 Euros an hour and I told my staff that I was cutting all their pay to 5 euros and if they didn't like it they could fcuk off because I'd easily get a bunch of desperate bastards to replace them...I'd still be breaking the law.
Would you say I was right under those circumstances?

RedXIV

jackiebaron wrote: »

The employer is NOT right.....he's merely blackmailing his staff because he can. If the minimum wage was say 8 Euros an hour and I told my staff that I was cutting all their pay to 5 euros and if they didn't like it they could fcuk off because I'd easily get a bunch of desperate bastards to replace them...I'd still be breaking the law.
Would you say I was right under those circumstances?

thats why he's right. He CAN do that. Because people need jobs and are willing to put up with crap to get those jobs. it's not nice and it sucks for the OP but I can think of 5 people off the top of my head who'd take that job if the OP didn't want it

BostonB

Its not uncommon for people to start working for free to get some experience.

2 hours training every week seems very odd though.

Solution is get a better job.

jackiebaron

RedXIV wrote: »

thats why he's right. He CAN do that. Because people need jobs and are willing to put up with crap to get those jobs. it's not nice and it sucks for the OP but I can think of 5 people off the top of my head who'd take that job if the OP didn't want it

You can NOT fire someone because they refuse to work for nothing. That will land your ass in court.

RedXIV

jackiebaron wrote: »

You can NOT fire someone because they refuse to work for nothing. That will land your ass in court.

Oh I know but there are plenty of other ways to get around it especially since our OP is only there 6 weeks. Once again, its not nice and not ethical but lets be a little bit realistic here.

I agreed that the OP should just look for a job and until then put up with it as I remember how hard it was for me to get a job at his age and that was during the supposed "boom"