Contracted hours

[Crazy Monkey]

Been a seasonal worker for Asda Superstores for the past five Summer seasons,My contract states i must work at least 10 weeks a year,which i have made more of every year,i work 7 nights a week for a period of 5 to 6 months each year,never been late,sick or taken any leave during those periods,every year my contract states 1 hour a week,i make at least 49 hours,as it affects my holiday pay the company usually ups the contract to 5 nights at 7 hours a total of 35 hours during my stay to enable suitable holiday pay,for me this has been Common Practice,this year after working for the past 7 weeks on a 1 hour a week contract have finally been given a new contract for 15 hours a week,i think this is unfair as i still work the seven nights,i have no medical or health problems,is there any laws about the hours i can work as they say that the contract is made like this as they are concerned about my health for making so many hours yet they have always let me do this,i think basically i am being cheated for payment for holiday,Hope you can give me some advice,also does Common Practice not that i really understand the meanings of have any help in the matter,
Crazy Monkey...

[Sidewinder]

It is a nightmare to calculate for seasonal casual workers, but the law says that you are entitled to 4.8 weeks holiday a year. Normally this is straightforward, but where your hours vary from week to week, you are entitled to 4.8 weeks holiday based on the hours worked in the previous 12 weeks. Therefore, assuming that you work for precisely three months, then at the end of that period you would have accrued 4.8/4 = 1.2 weeks holiday pay based on the average weekly number of hours worked during the three month period. You may well need to push this point though as you have a contract for a 'flat' 15 hours a week, and it is highly likely that any holiday pay at the end of the three months, will be paid at 1.2 x 15 hours.

I am not entirely sure why Asda have framed your contract as they have done - if you used to have a contract for 35 hours but this year they have dropped it to 15 it may simply be that the manager doesn't have the hours in his permitted budget to 'officially' let you have them - it isn't likely to be due to any health concerns as the Working Time Directive allows you to work an average of up to 48 hour per week, subject to being also allowed the correct rest periods (at least 11 hours rest between shifts, at least one whole day off a week and a rest break of at least 20 minutes during a shift lasting six hours or more). You say that you work 7 nights a week - this is actually against the law unless you have voluntarily opted out, but then that wasn't even included in the old contract so is unlikely to be a reason now to reduce your contracted hours.

[paulgmb]

Hi Crazy monkey,
I've sent you a private message about Asda. Theres a page on my unions website for Asda employees at www.gmb.org.uk/asda
Regards,
Paul.

[Sidewinder]

That link doesn't seem to work Paul.

[paulgmb]

Thats odd it certainly used to!

I've e mailed the communications dept. to find out why it's stopped working. If you visit the GMB website there is lots of information on Asda if you put Asda in the search engine. Unfortunatly it doesn't seem to have been updated recently

[Crazy Monkey]

Hi this Crazy Monkey again,
Thank you for your exellent help,so going by the calculations in our previouse letter concerning the holiday pay,if there are no set backs and i continue to work until the end of October as i have in the previouse years,i will have completed a six months period,therefore a weekly average of the 12 weeks prior will be 49 hours,the six month period should give me a total of 2.4 weeks holiday pay,multiplied by the 49 hours will leave me with 117.6 hours pay,if the pay is £8 per hour i should recieve a total of £940 holiday pay,i am sure the wages department are not going to take too kindly to this,i am hoping by our corespondence it will help but if not what further action should i take to get the money i earned,
Yours Crazy Monkey,