Employer stealing my money!! Help please

[Yankeeruinx]

Hi I'm a chef in part of a big chain pub/restaurant and the company I work for has been screwing me over for years. The most recent thing is that now after we have worked 6 hours on a shift we get half an hour deducted from our wages automatically. There has been no warning of this happening the company has just done it and we didn't know about it until we got our wage slips today and we were some hours short.
Now I'm lead to believe that any changes like this are supposed to sent to you in writing before they implement them and we have had no such warning. Its extremely frustrating as for example if I do the night shift then I will work 4.30pm and finish at around 10.30/11.00pm so just over the 6 hours. Now we don't get any breaks and work straight through so what am I supposed to do at 10.30 when we are just about finished go sit down for half an hour and then come back and finish up or do I finish up and lose half an hour pay.
This isn't the first thing the company has done though, when I started we would do 40 hours then get paid time and a half for anything over. Then we were forced to sign new contracts or lose our job to change it to 48 hours before you get time and a half. Then they didn't even bother with making us sign a new contract and just made it that you don't get paid anything if you work over 48 hours, which you frequently have to do as we are short staffed because no one wants to work for the minimum wage they pay us.
Has anyone got any advice on if anything can be done to stop them doing this or if it is legal for them to do this without telling us?
Thanks for your help

Oh just remembered another thing. At the start of February I had 2.5 days holiday left which had not been paid to me. I had the time off but they forgot to pay me for it so I asked them if they could put it through the following week so that I would get paid for it. They agreed but when my wage slip arrived the following week it had not been paid and I had 2.5 holidays left still. I asked them again to make sure they paid it this week they said they forgot and would do it. Again they forgot and it never got paid. Then when March hit I got my wage slip still not being paid my holiday to find that the holidays were now gone.
I was told that I had to use them up before March as thats the start of the new year so anything you have left at the end of February is removed and not paid. I said that I had told them all month to put the holidays through and they just said well you had the time off which yes I did but I didn't get paid for it. Now they say there is nothing they can do as its the start of a new year

[old_andrew2007]

Hi

Just a short reply to BUMP your thread


Andy

[Cellbar]

Hi there - they are supposed to advise you of any contractural changes, and they should give you at least 28 days notice I believe. Firstly, as ever, I would seek advice from ACAS, as it looks as if they are utilising the Working Time Regulations, but they are using it to their own advantage. Under this, you have to have a minimum 30 minute break after working 6 hours: The basic rights and protections that the Regulations provide are:a limit of an average of 48 hours a week which a worker can be required to work (though workers can choose to work more if they want to).a limit of an average of 8 hours work in 24 which nightworkers can be required to work.a right for night workers to receive free health assessments.a right to 11 hours rest a day.a right to a day off each week.a right to an in-work rest break if the working day is longer than 6 hours.a right to 4 weeks paid leave per year.The thing is, if you do not put in a grievance about it, you are deemed to accept it after a period of time anyway, so put something in writing to them. The same with your holiday pay. You do have rights in this area, and their lack of correct procedure and admin practices is not your fault. Do you have anything documented in relation to your requests and their responses etc? It is always best to put things in writing so that everything is documented and they cannot go back on things that have been said.

[Yankeeruinx]

Thanks for the advice I will ring them and see what they say.