wife has had hours cut without choice - we are getting concerned

neonitrix

My wife works for a majoy filling station chain, when she started working for them over 5 years ago it was a part time position as she was studying at the same time. Then when her studies finished she moved to full time but they never gave her a full time contract despite her regular requests.

fast forward to two years ago and the store hours were cut to 35 per week for my wife, then 10 weeks ago the store moved to staff working alone on shift but her hours stayed at 35 per week.

then 3 weeks ago they announced that the store hours (total amount of hours they gave staff) were to be cut. all staff effected but store hours unchanged. 1st week my wife had 27 hours still rostered over 5 days, 2nd & 3rd week she was on hols and this week 20 hours.


So my wife has gone from working 7 hours a day 5 days a week to as an example this week:

10-3 mon
6-10 wed
10-12 & 2:30 - 6 thur
10-1 sat & 3:30-6 sat
total 20 hours over 4 days

we dont even know if what they are doing with the split shift is allowed?

They are unwilling to entertain staff concerns have basically said there is the door if you dont like it, aswell as giving no notice of loss of hours, and are unwilling to provide letter to say hours were cut or to facilitate any member being able to sign on for theys they are not working.

We are Looking for some direction as to what we can do, as its not going to take much for us to be unable to meet bills as i am currently unemployeed but attending college towards a degree.

Hope someone can help

tks

neonitrix

tatli_lokma

technically if she was never given a new contract, they can only be held to the hours outlined in the initial contract.
I know your wife often got extra hours, but these would have been classed as hours in addition to her contracted hours.

What is the minimum number of hours stated in her contract? If they go below this, you can take it further, otherwise you don't really have much to support you.

As far as social welfare goes, as she works 4 days out of the week, she would only get 1 day (I believe the SW has changed from a 6 day week to a 5 day week recently). But still, it would be something.

Perhaps she should contact her SW office and explain the situation. The company cannot refuse to assist her in her claim for SW, and now you no longer need your employer to complete the casual slips, but you fill them in yourself and get them stamped by your boss. So the effort they need to take is minimal.

TheDoc

Little Ted wrote: »

technically if she was never given a new contract, they can only be held to the hours outlined in the initial contract.
I know your wife often got extra hours, but these would have been classed as hours in addition to her contracted hours.

What is the minimum number of hours stated in her contract? If they go below this, you can take it further, otherwise you don't really have much to support you.

Unfortunately it appears to be the above. It sounds like your wife was offered full time hours but never provided a full time contract. This allows the employer the wiggle room to drop hours when required.

Unfortunately its regular practice in the retail/services industry. Typically employees wont ask too many question when they get tons more hours. Its a lesson I know my partner learned hard.

She was working with a large retail chain and was informed she was made full time from what was initially a part time 8 hour a week contract. It lasted for about three months and then she found her hours back to 8 after the busy season. We were up in arms until I read her contract and saw what was stated and we just had to learn from it.

From your post it appears that from 5 years employment, only in the last few weeks your wife has had her hours significantly cut. Might be worth advising her to chat with her employer, it might be temporary, or the store might be in difficulty.

With a mature civil conversation some facts might come to light, and who knows, it might be a a small blip the garage is going through and when it picks up again she can discuss a more permant on paper deal

LegacyUser

I was sorry to hear about your wife hours as I know things are not easy for you at the moment. You said they won't facilitate any member being able to sign on for theys they are not working.
I cannot understand why this company are not willing to provide a letter to say hours were cut or to facilitate any member being able to sign of for the days they are not working.
They could give people 2 or 3 days a week and let them sign on the other days.
I know of a business who put there staff on a 3 day week. They had to fill in a lot of paper work to do this. This company saved a lot of money by paying less wages, tax, prsi and usc over a few months.
If I was your wife I would ask her could she speak to her boss and explain that she knows the shop my not be as busy as it once was but she is worried about the number of hours she is working. She could say to her boss that if you were to fill out some forms for the deparment of social welfare I could work 2 or 3 days a week and sign on for the other days.
By doing this you will cut down on your wages cost, prsi, tax and usc. I would get a casual docket from the deparment of social welfare which I would need you to sign each week with my days worked. This is showing the business where she is working for that she is not coming along complaining but is trying to find a solution which benefits her employer and her. I would get her to ring the tax office to see if her tax and prsi is up to date. She just needs to give her pps number and ask them what they have on record for her because her job may be paying her cash in hand & she might only find this out later if she had to sign on.
Good Luck.