My stepson works in his local WMC glass collection usually on a weekend while he does college through the week.

He's just turned 19 although has some form of Autism so with this being his first job me and his mum look out for him a bit.

He's been there about 3 years now and usually does around 2 shifts a week over the weekend the wmc decided they were going to do contracts for everyone.

In the contract it stated that stepson/glass collectors are classed as casual staff so they are working in a needs of the club basis. Now once this contract was issued he started getting the odd shift which was 1 day a week which meant his wage would only be about £20.

The landlady said after he spoke with her not to worry about it as he gets 2 shifts (they do have too many glass collectors)

So ok we then looked into how his holidays were worked out with him being casual staff as we wanted to know how they worked them out as he was told 8 days per year but in the contract it stated that they would look at hours worked over 12 weeks.

We also asked about smokers breaks usually because he does 4 hrs they don't get a break and if they do it is down to the landlady/boss that night. usually they do however in the contract it only ever refers to smokers getting a break and as long as they sign out it's ok so we asked if the contract could be changed to inc non-smokers.

this we as reply we got in summary,

Dear .....

None of the bar staff of glass collectors have contracted hours so it would be unfair to say you are guaranteed 2 shifts per week.

Holidays are worked out from your working week pro rata over the last 12 weeks worked (fair enough) (only gripe I have with that is holidays run from January-dec so the secretary didn't explain if from January he needed to build up 3 months of holidays or whether they go from the last 3 months which would be from the end of december 2012) I will look into that.

As for smokers breaks he basically said they don't have to give one but they do they have to sign out in a book so they know where they are and went onto say that as a non smoker he has to stand in the smoking area so they know where he is if there is a fire. he doesn't smoke and he ended the letter with.

Stepson...you have more than 50 years left to work and you will find this type of discrimination where ever you work.

Bottom line really I don't think we will take it further with it being his first job he would need a reference and speaking from experience of employers you do get bullying in the work place and while it doesn't bring a lot of income it is something more than anything I was shocked that the club secretary actually admitted in writing that the club "discriminates" against it's employees

sure.

but not in an illegal discrimination sense.

I think your son is getting a warning shot of "stir it up and get pedantic and you'll be difficult to work with, try rolling with it, you'll get further."

Which is not bad advice.

TBH its a casual job at weekends its not really worth getting into rights etc as they could just say he isnt needed anymore. there are always arguments over those who smoke getting breaks and those who dont not, but thats life, once he finishes college I doubt if he will make this his full time career, so really just get on with it, its two shifts a week, gives him some spending money and it appears he is treated no differently to anyone else.

the club is saying that it allows unpaid breaks for smokers. This is perfectly legal and not discriminatory. You could encourage your stepson to take up smoking with all the benefits that carries with it, he probably wont have to work for 50 years then.