Sainsbury's

[brokestudent111]

Hi, first time poster here.

 

I'm not sure if anyone can help with this at all. I am currently a student, and over the summer I applied and got offered a permanent job at Sainsbury's. I was originally intending on taking a year off to save up some money for uni, but I was offered some financial support by the university to return, so I handed in my notice.

 

The management were understanding, and said it was very likely that they would take me back on as a temporary employee over the university holidays. As time went on, it seemed clear that the management were expecting me back and I was led to believe that my position was secured for the christmas holidays.

 

However, on the final day of my notice, my immediate manager took me into the office and said that as a result of my timekeeping record, they will not be offering me my job back in december. I had been late to work a few times over the course of the past couple of weeks. However, they expected me to work long hours, normally 47 hours a week, sometimes even exceeding 60; and also expected me to work until 10.30 on a Friday night and be in at 8.00 the following morning. It was a 1.5 hr commute into work, so that normally left me only 6.5 hrs of sleep, and often much less than this (if the trains were delayed or cancelled,which they often were).

 

I explained that my poor timekeeping was due to being excessively overtired, and even asked for my hours to be changed, but to no avail. I explained to my manager that by employing me for those hours the company would be in breach of the Work Time Regulations, but my manager's response was "you signed your contract saying you were happy to do those hours, therefore we are not breaking the law".

 

As I understand it, under the WT Regs, I am entitled to an 11-hour rest period between shifts at work, which they failed to oblige. They also fiddled my timesheets a few times so that they could let me work over 47 hours in a week, not only to keep within the WT Regs, but as I later found out, to avoid paying me overtime premium.

 

I know there is not much of a case, I left of my own accord and hadn't been working there very long, but is there anything I can do?:-?

 

Thanks very much for reading through this.

[Bookworm]

- The 48 (not 47) hours a week are calculated over a period of 17 weeks, so if it works out that overall you were doing less than 48 hrs/week average, it wouldn't count.

 

- Even if it does that you did work more than 48 hrs, unless you opted out in writing from the 48 hrs week, then you have no recourse about working more than that.

 

- Strictly speaking, yes, they were in breach of the rest period thing, but I have to ask, what are you hoping to achieve here? :-? If they're not going to offer the job back, then complaining about the hours/rest is not going to help, and as you say you left of your own accord, so I am unclear as to what your aim is.

[Weird Al Yankovic]

I'm quite shocked as I worked as a shelf stacker for Sainsburys when a student some years ago and, without doubt, they were the best employers I ever worked for-they were fantastic.

 

Could it be a case of a bad manager rather than Sainsburys being bad? Although Sainsburys would still be responsible if there was any wrong doing?

 

Very imortantly-how old are you? As there are different rules for youngsters with the WTR.

 

And how was your time sheet fiddled with? I remember electronic time recording.

[p_cas]

Leaving aside your timekeeping and other issues, is the problem that you don't have a job lined up for the Christmas holidays? I don't believe they would be under any obligation to employ you during that time, unless you have something in writing to say otherwise. Arguing about your working hours etc will certainly not help your case. Personally I'd look for another temporary job for the holidays, maybe one that doesn't require a 1.5 hour commute!