Unbearable work situation

[Fuzzgin]

I work in a small office. I'm the only part time employee. Due to my chronic fatigue syndrome and other illnesses I work one day a week. That was the deal with the employee before me due to her family comitments. Additionally I cover holiday and sometimes sickness. I was of the opinion that this was by mutual agreement, when it suited me and them and that I could say "no" Apparently not.

 

A few months ago, I was ill and received a call asking me to go in, I said no as I was ill. My boss was very abrupt and I heard later that she'd been angry that I hadn't. My job was to cover sick leave. I get sick too, that's why I'm doing this job that pays the bills if I'm very lucky.

 

This week, I've covered for her being away longer than her agreed holiday. There are family reasons why she had to be away, I understand them, but I've been working through a chest infection and she has never asked me if it was OK for me to come in, just left a message with a colleague that she was off until further notice. She hasn't informed anyone of her plans.

I've understood that she's been away longer, these things happen, but she assumes I'll cover for her. There's a reason that I work part time. I have to pace myself and I can't work beyond the point where I've agreed to stop.

 

Anyway, I think next week she's going to demandthat I cover when ordered. I can't and won't live like this. Basically if this is the case my time is theirs even if not paid. If my phone rings, I have to go in. That cannot be right?

 

I know it's hearsay so far but I want to prepare myself so I can stand up for my rights. I have rarely refused to cover, been really flexible. My contract says "Stand by cover will be necessary from time to time" Surely I must have some say in when and can't be made to suffer for not going in when ordered.

 

I hope this makes some kind of sense. I understand a lot of this is what I've heard from others, but if she does make demands directly, I'd like tobe prepared.

[Sidewinder]

You need to request written clarification of the terms of your contract. Tell them that you understand it to be that your normal working hours involve one day a week plus cover from time to time by mutual agreement. Whilst you have always sought to help with working additional hours, things have got to the stage where you are feeling that undue pressure is being applied where circumstances do not make it possible for you to work those extra hours. Whilst you appreciate that cover work, by definition, is often unpredictable you do not feel that sufficient consideration is given to the fact that you may be sick yourself, after all, the employer is aware of your own medical condition, and also that on occasion you have made alternative arrangements prior to being asked to work. Whilst you are happy to continue providing cover 'by mutual agreement', you need clarification of the employer's definition of this term as it seems that you are being expected to drop everything on request which you feel is unacceptable.

 

Good Luck!

Edited January 8, 2009 by Sidewinder

[ErikaPNP]

Just a thought, as you've not gotten to that stage but if they tried to pull a disciplinary over this, it may be worth looking into whether you'd be covered by the disibility discrimination act due to your illnesses.

[Fuzzgin]

Cheers to both of you.

 

I called my boss's boss today and asked for clarification of the terms of my contract. I didn't say why, just that I'd found a copy and noticed that the wording was not quite as I'd thought it was. (I'd remembered the words "by mutual consent" or something to that effect being there.) Anyway, she verbally confirmed what I thought it meant, although I don't have it in writing, she gave me an example of someone in a similar job who does another part time + cover job and is not expected to drop everything and come in, so that is a relief.

 

As or the disability discrimination act, I'm not sure at all. I've thought about that a lot. I've read the definitions on web sites and I fit the first part in that I have a long standing illness that affects my day to day living (I don't have the exact wording to hand and the brain fog that comes with my illness, is striking) I just don't seem to fit most of the list of specifics.

 

The problem is that I'm ill so intermittently that when I'm at work, I appear fine, it's just that I run out of steam and have to sleep, so more than two days a week except in exceptional circumstances are very difficult for me. I've worked out ways of dealing with it and one is by pacing myself. I need to know how long I'm going to be working so that I can do that, and I can't add on extra days any more than a flat battery can decide to carry on working.

 

Anyone know who I could turn to for an analysis of whether I count as disabled under the terms of the act?

[Sidewinder]

I think that you may find a lot of the information HERE of interest.

[Fuzzgin]

I have an apointment with occupational health which I requested as I had to take time off earlier in the year due to an as yet undiagnosed condition. I'm not sure what they can actually offer and I could use advice.

 

I work one day a week by contract for the local authority with additional coverage for absence of colleages. I've always been very flexible and have covered almost every time I've been asked, but the system doesn't seem to allow for the fact that I might be ill too. Due to my condition, I took this job as I can live on the money but I can't do full weeks too often. Also, one of my colleagues will retire soon and it's expected that I will take on more hours. I'd like to, but I can't. Not while my health is in limbo with no diagnosis or effective treatment.

 

I asked for this appointment with the hope of getting help with this limbo state. I had an appointment early on in my time here and it wasn't much use, so this time I want to get the most out of it. I've done research online, but not sure what they can actually do to help as I can see a big fall out at work happening soon and Id like to know where I stand.

 

I was going to ask the union for advice too, but my boss is also my steward. It's a very small office.

[borisbeaver]

You really need to ask yourself what you want to get out of your Occ Health consultation.

[Fuzzgin]

The problem is that I don't know. My health seems to be giving my boss an excuse to demand that I do more while stopping me from doing better paid overtime. Obviously I don't earn a lot and I rely on that overtime for the months when there isn't a lot of standard overtime. Because I can't seem to work out what occupational health can do, I don't know how much detail to go into.

[Fuzzgin]

It's a while since that appointment and it didn't help a lot except to explain the various stresses I was under coupled with the absence of a definite diagnosis to explain why I'm ill.

 

Since then I haven't refused any extra days, I've done whatever they've asked. My boss however has been constantly phoning the occ. health person demanding a full report. The occ health person has told her it's confidential so now my boss is insisting that I write to the occ health person, copying her (my boss) in telling her that she can tell my boss everything. I don't feel that my boss should have the right to know the whole discussion, but she's insisting that it's a trust issue. If she doesn't get a full report then I'm denying her info to judge when I can go back to being asked to cover (which I'm doing anyway).

 

Not sure what to do now. I feel really stressed and this isn't helping. I'm now off for 2 weeks so I can't do a lot but I'd like to be prepared when I return.

 

(btw, my boss prepared me for this, by slamming round the office, biting everyone's heads off and telling me she wanted a word with me in private.. but not yet as she's busy. Why does she think stress levels are so high?)

[shifty50dog]

Hi

Your boss has no right to ask about your medical data and i would not give consent to och to give that data.Also be clear with och that you will contact the gmc and the nmc if they do so.Ask your boss if you can see is medical data my advice to you is do not put your trust in och or hr these people are not to be trusted.

Also seeing your boss in private is not a good idea if its about you being off work ill take someone with you to take notes or go in with a dictaphone to record that meeting,

[Fuzzgin]

It's a small office, only 3 of us and the boss (my line manager) often calls staff into her office, not usually formally, sometimes just for scheduling chats.

[Fuzzgin]

Hi, please help!

 

My colleagues and I have a question. We are based in an office and sometimes work for an hour or so on Saturdays for special occasions. When this started about 5 years ago, because it wasn't for very long our managers negotiated a rate that everyone would get paid (regardless of scale) that made it worthwhile to work weekends.

 

We ask the customers for a callout charge (the employers make it look like we get this, the way it's worded, but we don't.) It more than pays for itself, actually our employers make almost £100 profit each time.

 

Now they want to pay us just time and a half. Our terms and conditions are being renegotiated but this one they won't even talk to the union about. A new starter could get less than a third or even a quarter of what they'd get before.

 

The thing is these weekends are optional. We're all free to say no, and often do. We've all been told from the day of the new payments we're not doing them. It's not worth our while for such a savage pay cut. To add insult to injury the senior management will now increase the call out fee the public pay. Can we all just refuse? (the majority have refused and given the area covered there's no way that the one or two left could do even a fraction of them). Or is this industrial action as the union have suggested which would require ballots? We have a month before management will try to impose it.

[Sidewinder]

What you have here is an attempt to force a change in contract. If your contract states that you work Monday to Friday then that is all you are obliged to work. Although it has been customary over time that you also work an occasional Saturday, it is also customary that you are paid a specific rate, and are free to say no. Therefore, whilst it could be argued that Saturday working has become custom and practice, so has the freedom to do so or not, so in simple terms you can exercise that freedom permanently and hold the employer to the Monday to Friday contract. If they choose to build the requirement for Saturday working into new starters' contracts, then that is perfectly acceptable.

 

This isn't industrial action unless you choose to make a stand over it, or unless the employer tries to force you to work on Saturdays (for either the current rate or the new rate - that is irrelevant). In that case, the Union would be correct in holding a strike ballot in order to prevent the employer forcing the change through and giving you a 'take it or leave' option.

[Fuzzgin]

Thanks for the speedy response Sidewinder. It confirms what I thought. The union are dragging their heels and saying that we have established "custom and practice" and that to refuse now would be to take illegal action which could lead to the employer (a council) being able to force through a contract change. The union is suggesting that as we've done them in the past the council is entitled to expect we will continue to do so. What about our entitlement to get a fair and agreed pay for it. Does this right not go both ways?

 

Thing is, we want to do the Saturdays, the public relies on our being available but not at a rate like this when the empoyer's making a huge profit and demanding extra cash from us and the public.

[Fuzzgin]

Any way in which the union could say that it would be illegal to hold a ballot for industrial ation. The employers are offering 3 options,

 

1. Do the Saturdays at the lower rate.

2. Do them at a lower rate still

3. Don't do them at all.

 

btw this Saturday work will start on 4th of September at the new rate, the employers are contractually obliged to provide someone to do it and have taken payment but have no one to do it. They have no time to recruit and train anyone to do this job. It involves several appointments a day often hundreds of miles apart and many at the smae time or close.

[Fuzzgin]

How can it "breach equal pay law" to have a work to rule action ballot when no details of what area of equal pay law have been given? Can anyone help as this leaves a lot of people without a service that we are not prepared to do for under £15 when we previously got near to £50. The employers are now saying that if we want to all be paid the same we will, but all paid at the lowest rate so now everyone loses money.

 

The union have recruited whole offices in our area in the last month but because of their spinelessness will lose all of us next week.

[Fuzzgin]

Can someone help me with ths? 4th September is fast approaching and they are refusing to listen. I get that the union has agreed everything in a block without consulting members. *The consultation process was basically, we'll discuss with the union, but if they don't agree we're going ahead anyway.

 

If it helps, we're registrars and there are going to be some seriously upset brides, but I'm not doing a ceremony for £13 -£15 when it used to be £48 (and the council get £142).. The council are putting highly undertrained people in our jobs rather than consider ways they could solve this. We have to face the couples and the councils knows that this will make some of us crumble. A senior manager actually said that people were happy to do our job or nothing. I really can't afford to tighten my belt and nor can my colleagues. Our pay is low anyway. I relied on Saturdays to survive.

 

In addition they've changed the place that we start from to work rather than home which means that once one colleague has paid for the extra petrol she'll be lucky to get £4.

[honeybee13]

Fuzzgin, have you or your colleagues talked to ACAS? It might help to talk to someone who understands the legal process. If you don't like the first answer you get, it's worth ringing again if you can because different advisers have different levels of knowledge.

 

I hope you get this resolved, it doesn't sound fair to me.

 

HB

[Fuzzgin]

Thanks honeybee. I did consider doing that. I know some councils do have fixed payments for this and our council and union are saying they can't do it by law. Very convenient to use it to impose a two thirds pay cut. And to add insult to injury they are planning to put up the "registrars' call out fee." I can't see people who already have jobs being happy to do this for very long for a pittance even if they currently think it's fun to marry people. We took the job and legal side seriously.

 

I wish that I knew what to say to ACAS. I'm so angry it always ends in a rant rather than a constructive request for help. Of course the press (yup, it's even been in the sun) are getting the council view point and we can't put our viewpoint across because to critiicse the council openly (oops) is a disciplinary offence.

[honeybee13]

I really think you should try ACAS. Most of the helpline people know the law and I'm sure you can hold it together to speak to them and not be angry.

 

Please give it a try.

 

HB x

[Fuzzgin]

I'm also curious, before I phone ACAS. This is part of a new terms and conditions package. The new terms and conditions start on 1st September and sound like a new contract. I haven't signed anything, I won't sign anything. It's all to the detriment of myself and my colleagues. Can these be imposed?

[Fuzzgin]

Hi,

 

My employer (a local authority) went through single status/job evaluation a couple of years ago. It was agreed that everyone in my job would go up a grade. Some of us haven't. That we should is not in dispute. we were promised the new grade and back pay this month but again it hasn't been paid. We're now being told next month or the month after (maybe).

 

I've been relying on this money. due to ill health I don't work full time and my wage varies each month. This month was an incredibly low pay month but I was OK with it as I'd been promised two years of back pay. Now I'm going to struggle to survive. This is my pay, I worked for it. I'm goig to have to go cap in hand to beg a month's delay in paying my council tax... because they owe me money and everyone shrugs and denies responsibility.

 

Is there anything I can do? I'm in a union and will talk to them tomorrow but I don't expect much help from them. Any suggestions?

[RachelMD]

If they've agreed to pay you a certain amount, but they're not doing so, then they're in breach of contact and they're contravening Section 13 ERA 1996 (right not to suffer unauthorised deductions).

Your union should take this up for you, if they've got their act together. Failing that, come back to us and we'll help ya write a letter.

Edited June 28, 2011 by RachelMD
write a letter, not right a letter.

[Fuzzgin]

Ta Rachel. We'll see what the union say tomorrow.

[honeybee13]

Hello Fuzzgin. I imagine they've put this in writing, have they?

 

My best, HB