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Employer making us work in non essential retail. What are my rights?

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  • 26-10-2020 7:25pm
    #1
    gracielou19
    Registered Users Posts: 1 ✭


    Hey everyone,

    I hope this is alright to post I'm a little bit lost and with the bank holiday haven't been able to get citizens information.

    I'm a manager in a non essential retail outlet. We were closed during level 4 and our employer tried to keep us open by offering a click and collect service at our front door. When we moved to level 5 we thought that would be that and we would be finished for 6 weeks.

    Instead our employer has told us that we must go into the premises from 10.30 until 1pm 7 days per week to look after the shops and provide customers with help setting up an online account if they happen to knock the door during these hours which of course they don't as everyone thinks we're closed - as we should be. We've been in the entire week and not had one customer knock the door, it is utterly pointless us being there.

    We've done that for a week now. Our employer said in return for us going in he would pay us our full contract hours for the next 6 weeks. He's already receiving our covid employee wage subsidy on our behalf so essentially he's topping up our wages.

    Today I was informed when we return to work in 6 weeks we will have zero bank Holidays left and zero annual leave days as they're using these to make up our wages each week. So basically my employer is making me and my staff sit in an empty building for 2.5 hours per day (10 hours per week for each employee) in exchange for full pay even though he's getting the wss for us and also taking all of our holiday entitlement off of us.

    Can he do this legally?

    Two of my staff have used their winter weeks annual leave and have no outstanding bank holiday entitlement and are on full pay and yet I myself have 70 hours outstanding am getting the same pay but when I return to work I won't have these as hes using 2/3 days annual leave to make up my wages every week for the next 6 weeks. Surely he can't be doing this?

    I have a phone meeting with an area manager tomorrow morning after having voiced my concerns this morning to her and I'd like to go into it a little better informed than I am at present if anyone has any ideas on how to approach the situation?

    Bearing in mind my employer has 52 shops across the country and hundreds of staff on his payroll I cannot fathom how he's getting away with this. If we were on the PUP we'd be getting 350 per week anyway like the rest of the country which isn't much less than our average weeks earnings anyway.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
    Post edited by Spear on


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    #2
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,099 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    Try the Work Problems forum instead:

    https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1052

    You may also want to make use of the anonymous posting option in there. Let me know if you want this deleted.


  • Options
    #3
    jimmycrackcorm
    Registered Users Posts: 14,330 ✭✭✭✭jimmycrackcorm


    Your answers are documented in the citizens advice: https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/leave_and_holidays/public_holidays_in_ireland.html

    Basically you are entitled to public holidays if you worked at least 40 hours in the prior 5 weeks.
    In terms of annual leave days, basically the employer can determine when you take them, so yes he can say those half days are your annual leave. however there is one exception: An employee who has worked for at least 8 months is entitled to an unbroken period of 2 weeks' annual leave.

    Only giving half days and not full days is dubious though. You'd need qualified advice, because if I read from this:
    https://employmentrightsireland.com/how-to-calculate-holiday-entitlements/

    The relevant section of the Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997 is section 19. It states:

    19.—(1) Subject to the First Schedule (which contains transitional provisions in respect of the leave years 1996 to 1998), an employee shall be entitled to paid annual leave (in this Act referred to as “annual leave”) equal to—

    (5) An employee shall, for the purposes of subsection (1), be regarded as having worked on a day of annual leave the hours he or she would have worked on that day had it not been a day of annual leave.


    Then it sounds like those days are classed as working days.


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