Saturday hours...
Discussion
Posting this on a new account for obvious reasons 
My company previously paid us for Saturday working or gave us time in leui. In early 2019 a New Line Manager starts and says it is in our contract to work Saturdays for nothing. I check our contract and it states “you are required to work Saturdays from 08:30am to 12:39pm on a rota basis”.
Now here is where it gets interesting;
- We are a large company with different franchises. Across the UK.
- I have spoken to three other employees. Two at different franchises. Another at the franchise I work for but at another business location.
- All three get paid for Saturday hours. And all three have exactly the same wording as my contract.
In light of the above, would it be reasonable to put in an informal complaint regarding this?

My company previously paid us for Saturday working or gave us time in leui. In early 2019 a New Line Manager starts and says it is in our contract to work Saturdays for nothing. I check our contract and it states “you are required to work Saturdays from 08:30am to 12:39pm on a rota basis”.
Now here is where it gets interesting;
- We are a large company with different franchises. Across the UK.
- I have spoken to three other employees. Two at different franchises. Another at the franchise I work for but at another business location.
- All three get paid for Saturday hours. And all three have exactly the same wording as my contract.
In light of the above, would it be reasonable to put in an informal complaint regarding this?
My company states that I must be paid time and a half for Saturdays and double time for Sundays. But on the proviso that I work for four consecutive days beforehand. If not, it's a single time payment. I'd take the matter further if I were you. You're expected to work on Saturdays and fund your own travel expenses for that day. You and your colleagues should definitely talk to your HR department.
Edited by Langweilig on Sunday 5th January 16:29
valspartan321 said:
Posting this on a new account for obvious reasons 
My company previously paid us for Saturday working or gave us time in leui. In early 2019 a New Line Manager starts and says it is in our contract to work Saturdays for nothing. I check our contract and it states “you are required to work Saturdays from 08:30am to 12:39pm on a rota basis”.
Now here is where it gets interesting;
- We are a large company with different franchises. Across the UK.
- I have spoken to three other employees. Two at different franchises. Another at the franchise I work for but at another business location.
- All three get paid for Saturday hours. And all three have exactly the same wording as my contract.
In light of the above, would it be reasonable to put in an informal complaint regarding this?
Why 12:39pm? Seems very precise...... 
My company previously paid us for Saturday working or gave us time in leui. In early 2019 a New Line Manager starts and says it is in our contract to work Saturdays for nothing. I check our contract and it states “you are required to work Saturdays from 08:30am to 12:39pm on a rota basis”.
Now here is where it gets interesting;
- We are a large company with different franchises. Across the UK.
- I have spoken to three other employees. Two at different franchises. Another at the franchise I work for but at another business location.
- All three get paid for Saturday hours. And all three have exactly the same wording as my contract.
In light of the above, would it be reasonable to put in an informal complaint regarding this?

Anyway it looks like your new Line Manager is trying to make a name for himself, possibly by cutting the wage bill.
I've seen that type of clause before. It's always been "paid" and usually at enhanced rates (time and a half, double time, or TOIL assuming you do a full working week during the other 5 days).
Is there a separate line in your contract that says how many hours you work ?
As the Saturday hours would just be part of that overall weekly/monthly hours.
Slightly off topic - I find it odd that people still expect to get paid special rates for Saturday/Sunday or even night working, in some industries ! I've always found it easy to recruit people who specifically want to work these days/nights and have no expectation of getting paid more for working when they want to
As the Saturday hours would just be part of that overall weekly/monthly hours.
Slightly off topic - I find it odd that people still expect to get paid special rates for Saturday/Sunday or even night working, in some industries ! I've always found it easy to recruit people who specifically want to work these days/nights and have no expectation of getting paid more for working when they want to
Chozza said:
Slightly off topic - I find it odd that people still expect to get paid special rates for Saturday/Sunday or even night working, in some industries ! I've always found it easy to recruit people who specifically want to work these days/nights and have no expectation of getting paid more for working when they want to
I think it's very much industry-dependent. For example it might be possible to get shop assistants to work evenings/weekends, they're easy to recruit, it's usually a part-time role, there isn't much additional training required and there will usually be a manager on site.iIs much harder (IME YMMV) to get technically skilled/qualified staff to do overtime or callout on the weekend at standard rates, especially if they've worked a full week as well. You can mitigate this to some degree by setting out a one-in-two/three/four weekends rota built into the standard contract but then you might be paying to have an engineer sat around doing nothing on a Saturday/Sunday.
TL:DR - different working patterns/pay rates needed for different roles.
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