 Contract Problems
Hi Folks,Need some advice please.
I work in a petrol station owned by a family who also own a home & garden centre,both businesses are next door to each other.
We have just been given contracts for the first time(I have been there 18 months) and all of us in the petrol station are not happy with the contracts we have been given.
before i go into the problems with the contracts i will fill you in on the place i work.
There are 4 employees in total(including myself)3 of us are employed to serve customers etc and the 4th person is employed to order stock and stock up the shop.
The stock person works 9am-2:30pm monday to friday.
The rest of us work a shift pattern which is 2 earlies to lates and 2 off,these shifts were only recently introduced because we used to have to work 7 days before we got 2 days off and i guess my employers changed the shifts because they knew they were breaking the law(working time directive etc).
Anyway as i have just said they have (4 days ago) given us contracts which we are not entirely happy with.
Some of the clauses are as follows.
Deductions from wages,what my employers are saying here is that any cash or stock shortages that occur on our shifts then we will be liable to pay back with no more than 10% deducted weekly from our wages whether it can be attributed to us or not.
Now here is the problem with the above clause,when we are on early shift(0730am-3:30pm)we get a 45 minute break and the stock person takes the till for that time to serve customers and if she makes a mistake and at the end of your shift you are maybe £20 short in your takings then You personally have to pay it back,well this sucks,but i have been informed by ACAS that my employers can actually do this.
Now the other word in that clause is the "stock descrepency",how are they going to know if we are missing stock during our shifts considering the vast amount of items we sell in the shop?.
My guess is and my fellow employees think that when a stocktake is done at the end of the year any discrepencies will be equally split between the four of us and this will be deducted from our wages,again i consulted acas about this and they said that if that were the case we could take them to a tribunal(without resigning) for unlawful deductions.
There are other clauses in the contract like........
Compulsary overtime,I.E we must work on our days off if asked.
Also there is a problem with breaks when we work on a late shift(3pm-10:30pm)the problem is that when on a late shift you are on your own so we dont get a break,so having spoken to acas they have informed me that we are entitled by law to have at least a 30 minute break,health and safety have also confirmed this and have asked me to get back in touch with them if my employers still refuse,which i will.
There is also no mention about breaks in the contract.
Whats your thoughts on this folks
Your feedback will be greatly appreciated | 
