I have a client who has employed a 22 year old last July on a salary basis, however lately her timekeeping is quite horrendous as she has some health issues. My client wants to change her contract to hourly paid. She is currently on £12k for 32 hours plus a day at college, but she's not getting on at college so she is finishing. Minimum wage is £6.70 for an under 25 so if she works a 38 hour week she will be better off. My questions are: can they change her contract to hourly and if so how would it work-e.g could they say she is on a 30 hour contract then will she still be entitled to his 4 weeks holiday?
Oh don't you just love people who don't 'manage' their staff, by dealing with the timekeeping issue. Anyway to answer, no they cannot just change her contract by now employing her on an hourly basis or to change her hours. Well, not without the woman's agreement to it and if she doesn't agree and they enforce it, then she will have a case Against them. So they need to get her agreement and best that it is documented in case of future problems.
Problem with that is that if there are other staff who are not having their contracts changed then she might still have case. So your client needs to tread carefully. Suggest they speak to ACAS.
Re the holidays, the statutory minimum is not four weeks, but 28 days, so they may need to revisit what they are doing. The 28 days can include or exclude Bank holidays. For someone working part time then it's pro-rated.
Are they suggesting that she should be on a 38 hr contract but is expected to continue to be late? So to get round that it will be 30 hour contract but expected to work 38, so if she continues to be late they will just reduce it from the 38hours? They are seriously storing up trouble if that's the case. As the 38 hours becomes her contract. Or maybe they are building that in as maximum overtime hours? There has been recent hoo-hah about allowing holidays for overtime, so then she would be back to the full holiday allowance. Will leave you to dig around for an update on that one.
If they haven't, I would suggest they just start the disciplinary process formally and see if that works, if not then they can get rid, best life lesson for a 22 year old. Although if she has genuine and serious health issues, maybe they could allow same hours with more flexibility?
-- Edited by Cheshire on Saturday 23rd of April 2016 09:05:35 AM
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Sorry Joanne, I realise that this was ages ago and I read it at the time, but absolutely forgot to thank-you for taking the time out to reply. Sorry and thank-you. The person in question actually left in the end for a less stressful job, before the change of contract came into place.
