Help please empolyer is changing our contracts!!!!

[Yankeeruinx]

Hi I'll get right to the point. I work for Whitbread as a head chef in one of their restaurants and have worked there for 10 years. Today when I got to work I was told that as of the 1st April I would no longer receive 1.5 of my hourly rate for bank holidays it would be paid as any normal day and Christmas day which we have always got triple time for would be cut to double time. They said there was nothing I could do about it and that it was happening and tried to make me sign a sheet of paper they were getting everyone to sign saying that they have been made aware that the change was happening. I of course refused to sign it and then others followed suit.

 

They tried to sweeten the deal by saying that because they where taking our special payment days but they where going to give us 28 days holiday a year as opposed to 24 but I already knew that on the 1st of April the government have increased the minimum amount of holidays to 28 days anyway so they had to do that regardless, so basically they aren't giving us anything.

 

Now in the 10 years I have worked there they have always paid bank holidays and Christmas more than normal rate so can they just change this even if we don't want it. I have been led to believe this might fall under implied terms and that because they have paid it for so long that they can't just take it away.

 

When I first started at the company after 38 hours we got time and a half for over time, then it got changed to 48 hours before you got it then they just stopped paying it. Then they started automatically taking half an hour off our wages if we had been at work for over 6 hours for a break which we never get its 15 mins at the most, infact most people don't even bother having a break they just work right through. I have never signed a new contract for any of these changes that where made infact the only contract I have signed was when I started 10 years ago on £2.88 and hour.

 

We did nothing to stop it as we didn't think we had a leg to stand on at the time we just got told this is happening if you don't like it leave, but I would like to think I am a bit wiser now and surely they can't just go changing our contracts as they see fit. Whats to stop them from cutting my hourly rate down.

 

Is there anything I can do to stop them from doing this or do I just have to bend over and take it again from them.

[bazak1]

Basically, it depends what your contract stipulates.

Regards the "breaks". i know a lot of people work through their breaks to get jobs finished on time, but what they don't understand is, that this gives unfair representation of your workload. Obviously if you wouldn't get your task finished if you took your break then your working day and it's tasks need to be looked at more closely, PLUS of course, you dont get paid for the break, so why work through it.

 

visit http://www.direct.gov and / or Acas - How can we help? and browse their sections on contracts. it makes very interesting reading.

 

regards,

 

Baz

[Yankeeruinx]

Yeah the break thing I can deal with its not really a problem anymore as my employer just adds half an hour onto my shift then when the system takes the half hour off its back to normal.

 

My issue is with them taking time and a half off us for bank holidays and Christmas Day.

[rastinan]

From my experience, unless there is something in your contract stating that you will get some form of enhanced pay rate for working on the bank holidays and christmas day, unfortunately there isn't really much you can do about it, as it really is up to the employer to decide if they pay you above your basic rate for working those days.

[bazak1]

Have to agree with rastinan. Unfortunately it's up to them.