Validity of an employment contract

Adam.Cahill

My girlfriend has been working with a retail company for nearly a year now and in that time i've noticed that a number of 'policies' that the company have been enforcing seem to be very sketchy, so i'm wondering if anyone can give me any advice and references with regards to the following

* most importantly at this point in time, they ask her to do work outside of her work hours which they claim is part of the contract she signed, such as going online when she gets home from work and filling in questionaires to prove her store knowledge. she gets a number of these to do a week and it takes her half an hour or more to do them, and she's already spent a full day in work and obviously just wants to get home, get dinner and relax. to me it seems as though that part of the contract should be invalid since it's criminal to ask someone to do something they're not getting paid for as it's out of work hours. yes, no?

* she also gets told that she's not allowed to leave the store on her lunch in case she's needed at any point, so must stay in the office to eat her lunch

* for a 9 hour shift she only gets a 30 minute lunch break???

* she's been threatened with dismissal the only two times she has called in sick the entire time she's been there and is afraid of her life to ever get sick now for fear of getting fired. i mean they don't even care if she can get a doctors not, which to my understanding is only required after three consecutive days sick anyway

* she gets kept behind an hour after work that she's not paid for, and again her contract states that she has to do so in order to help cash up. UNPAID!!!!!


can anyone please give me advice as to what to do about these things. i neeed to know if contracts are void if they ask you to do unreasonable things, and i get the feeling that most of this stuff is not legal. if so, could i also get a reference to any legal documentation stating what the law is with regards to these matters.

hope it's not asking too much... i just really need to help her!

thanks in advance for any help i receive!!

seamus

Adam.Cahill wrote: »

* most importantly at this point in time, they ask her to do work outside of her work hours which they claim is part of the contract she signed, such as going online when she gets home from work and filling in questionaires to prove her store knowledge. she gets a number of these to do a week and it takes her half an hour or more to do them, and she's already spent a full day in work and obviously just wants to get home, get dinner and relax. to me it seems as though that part of the contract should be invalid since it's criminal to ask someone to do something they're not getting paid for as it's out of work hours. yes, no?

Rough rule of thumb here is that it's fine for an employer to ask the employee to perform unpaid overtime provided that it's reasonable and incidental. In other words provided that it's a small amount of overtime (half an hour seems OK) and only happens occasionally. If it's a large amount of overtime occuring at regular or fixed intervals, then it should be considered part of her core working hours and should be paid accordingly.

In general, if she's paid by the hour, then she's entitled to be paid for this extra overtime. If she's paid a salary, then she's entitled to refuse to do it if it does not suit her to.

Many employers do a "you must stay back and clean up" routine, but if she's not being paid for it, they cannot require her to stay back and cannot penalise her for leaving.

This employer probably relies on employees not realising that they can refuse to do unpaid overtime and the employer can do nothing about it.

* she also gets told that she's not allowed to leave the store on her lunch in case she's needed at any point, so must stay in the office to eat her lunch

She can leave. It's reasonable for an employer to ask the employee to ensure they're contactable, but they cannot dictate what the employee does on their lunch break.

* for a 9 hour shift she only gets a 30 minute lunch break???

This is the minimum required by law. It's harsh, but legal.

* she's been threatened with dismissal the only two times she has called in sick the entire time she's been there and is afraid of her life to ever get sick now for fear of getting fired. i mean they don't even care if she can get a doctors not, which to my understanding is only required after three consecutive days sick anyway

Not strictly legal or illegal. But indicative of a bullying culture and this kind of incident is exactly the kind of thing that she should make sure she makes a note of and keeps track of. If she does get fired (or leaves due to the culture in the office), it's this kind of evidence that can be used in a court action against them.

* she gets kept behind an hour after work that she's not paid for, and again her contract states that she has to do so in order to help cash up. UNPAID!!!!!

Contrary to what I said above, if this is a specific clause in her contract that she must stay behind for an hour to cash up, then that's what she has agreed to do and the employer has a legal right to make her stick to that.
You could argue that the clause is unreasonable and therefore invalid, however unless she was willing to go to court for that, then she's bound by that clause.

Advice: It's a crappy place to work, with particularly scabby employers who have no respect for their workers.

Aside from the poor conditions, her health will suffer from stress and there is no doubt very low morale in general, which can take its toll on the individual.

She should make a concerted effort to look around for another company and leave ASAP. It might even be worth taking a small cut in pay; If you work out what she actually earns per hour when you take the unpaid overtime in account, she'd probably find she's paid very poorly in comparison.

seamus

Sorry, as you said she worked in retail, there is a slight addition purely for shop workers:

Shop employees who work more than 6 hours and whose hours of work include 11.30am-2.30pm are entitled to a one hour consecutive break which must occur during those hours. Employees who work in the Retail Grocery trade (Nationwide) and the Retail Footwear and Drapery Trade (Dublin only) are entitled to a 15-minute paid break (exclusive of the main meal break) if working more than 4 ½ hours

Procrastastudy

Retail has a few odd rights which have come about, generally, because of union involvement. Almost every retailer uses the Dublin Drapery rules. for every 4.5 hours you get 15 mins paid (where you can't leave the store) + an hour on the above rules. Bear in mind if you're working 9 - 6 with the hour unpaid break then you are only working 8 hours. So thats your hour lunch and a 15 min break. The bloody moaning I used to get off staff sent for lunch at 11:30 - In retail its give and take and customers come in during Lunch so you have to keep it legally correct and try and make staff available over the Lunch rush. Bear in mind the other option, which a lot of retailers now do, is to keep shifts to the maximum of 4 hours.

Retail workers are treated like crap. I'd advise her to stick it out until shes been there a year and then get into a union. They can let her go at any point up to the year fairly easily. To be fair to the employer if I had a member of staff that had phoned in sick twice in the period of less than a year I'd be seriously considering they're position as well. Doctors notes here are rubbish - you pay the doctor so what are they going to do? Say no?

Legal or not a certain amount of flexibility is required due to customer flow and short staffing. I'd certainly expect to stay back unpaid if something had happened that was my fault such as the till being down or a task not completed, if given the circumstances, it would have been completed by another member of staff. As for training questionnaires all sales people spend their own time researching products so a bit of time doing that seems reasonable.

Could you make a fuss about it and get it changed in your (her) particular case yes - I wouldn't though. Its very much give and take. That said they are taking the micky on breaks.