constructive dismisal or hang in there?

LegacyUser

i'm a single parent woorking part time, i had an informal agreement of certain hours to work that suited me but now there is a new manager that agreement has been gone back on. i'm working a lot of late nights and every weekend. this means its difficult for me to find a babysitter and the fee is higher. i've explained it to my manager but been told these are the hours i'm needed. when i'm working these late nights its costing almost what i earn in babysitting, plus transport and food at work means i'm not really earning anything. if i left would i have any case here or how would you advise to proceed thanks

Trashbat

Depends on wether there are standardised working hours in your contract.

Most contracts refer to standard set of hours (say 9-5) with a provision detailign that some out of hours may be required. You may have some kind of a case here, but in companies where they do not have standard hours anyway, or operate 24 hours, contracts will generally be non-specific.

is there a genuine reason on the part of the company to make you work these hours? Is there someone in a similar position to you who is not required to do these hours? this could be important.

Basically though, I would say an informal agreement with a previous manager stands for nothing. Contract are more important.

slowmoe

something similar happened in my workplace a while ago. a woman quit then sued for a ton of reasons claiming constructive dismissal, the case went to court over her only receiving her roster a week in advance. the outcome was that a weeks notice wasnt enough time to arrange adequate childcare and was paid out 15k. i dont know if the same applies to you but given youve explained that its difficult for you to arrange childcare for these hours im guessing its similar.

is there any actual reason why your hours changed or is it just the new manager rearranging?

tricky D

Hopefully you've been employed by them for over a year otherwise you've little protection.

An informal agreement can nevertheless be considered as a contract by practice. So if you can prove that the old way consisted of doing X hours then changing those hours is a change of contract requiring agreement.

LegacyUser

Thanks for replies.

I haven't been given a genuine reason for why i have to work the hours, just been told its the needs of the business. I was hired to doo occassional weekend work with other part timers in college doing the weekend part time work but now they are off college and working more and don't want to work weekends so i've been given them.

I have explained the cost of childcare and the difficulty in gettting adequate childcare to my manager, who just shrugs and says needs of the bussiness comes first. Tbh i'm barely earning enough to cover my childcare and travel expenses now.

Yes i a employed for over a year and am in a union.

He has told me he knows those were my hours and the supervisor said it to him as well. When he started he asked me what hours i do and i told him and he just said ok. Then when i got the rota it was a different story but it couldn't be changed.

I've also asked for holidays three times this year and been told no each time. Everytime i'm told its because someone else is already going and you can't allow more than one person to take holidays at one time but at the moment three people are on holidays

Garth

Sounds pretty awful, and I think they're being rotten. I've never been in a union so I don't know how it works, but I'd look into talking to someone there.