A question for the managers

acg1305

I am wondering if you could help me 'air out' a number of concerns I have regarding my employer. As a full time Masters student, I am a part time retail worker in a concession, in a large department store in Dublin. I have been employed with this concession for over two years. During this time, particularly of late I have felt that the staff, or more importantly the part time staff have been treated less favourably than our full time counterparts.


This is beside the point. My current gripe, however, lies with my contract of employment. Nowhere in this document does it say the minimum or maximum hours I am required to work. Due to my current academic commitments I have had to significantly reduce my hours. I currently only work a shift on a Sunday (about six hours) which is all that I can manage with the work load.


I am concerned, however, that this Christmas period will be like any other. In other words, us part time staff will be expected to carry the load of the two full time staff members, who usually take a substantial number of days off during and just after Christmas ( we open on Stephens Day). I do not have the time available to me to work any more days than my one shift on a Sunday as last Christmas I was expected to work Christmas Eve right up until New Years Eve with only Christmas Day as a day off.


I apologise for venting but my question is this, do I legally have to work any more hours than the six hour shift myself and my manager agreed upon a number of months ago, even though there is no stipulation of my contracted hours? I want to only maintain this shift over the holiday period.

QueenOfLeon

Moved from the Leaving Cert forum to Work Problems.

Mrs OBumble

We cannot give you legal advice here ... see the charter.

But I guess a pragmatic approach might involve the observation that your manager could equally easily cut the hours you currently have, and give you zero hours.

TBH, I think you out of line being upset at being asked to work extra hours to cover full time staff leave: this is exactly why many companies keep flexible part time staff on board, ie is the reason they have you.

Seems to me you need to start talking to your manager about this ASAP - negotiating, and proving to them that you are so absolutely wonderful on Sundays that they need to keep you even though you cannot pull your weight (from the company's perspective) over Christmas. They will NOT appreciate it if you don't tell them about your change in circumstances this year until the last minute.

rainyrun

I agree with just mary.

your company may be doing the christmas rotas now.. so you need to talk to your manager ASAP. In most companies particularly retail there is an expectation that parttime staff increase their hours over christmas to meet the increased demand. It sounds like the company has been quite accomodating anyway by accepting you reducing your hours to 6 on a sunday ( though that could also be due to a downturn in the business)
and if your contract does not have fixed min or max number of hours then I suppose the company could review this at any time and probably take into account how accmodating you have been..
best of luck with your negotiations..

LimeFruitGum

Second, third all that.

TBH, I'd be less inclined to worry about treatment of part-timers over full-timers. Of course full-timers are bound to get better perks; they've undoubtedly worked up the hours and that's why there are part-timers to cover them. But let's focus on the main issue about your working availability.

They're going to need to know about how your study workload is going to impact the amount of hours you have available for them. Is there a clause in your contract about flexibility and working extra time to meet the needs of the business? Show them your college timetable if you have to and explain where you're at between now and the end of your academic year. They know you're a student, I'm sure they've handled this kind of situation plenty of times before