HOLIDAYS
The Working Time Regulations provide you with the right to four weeks
paid holidays per year which can include Public and Bank Holidays.
The present position under British law is that this entitlement becomes
your right after 13 weeks continuous employment. However, recent legal
decisions suggest that the British Government is in breach of European
law and may be forced to abolish the 13 week rule to fall in line
with the other E.U. countries.
Your written statement referred to in the previous section should
have laid out your entitlement. If you have not worked for a full
12 months in the holiday year you would expect to get a pro rata
entitlement. To give you an idea of what you might expect to get,
more than two in three workers get at least 22 days leave a year.
Swallow Hotels give 24 days, Marks and Spencer 23 and Tesco gives
22.
Your holiday year should be specified in your contract and if it
is not, it runs from the date when you started working or from 1st
October, if you were already working for your employer prior to
1st October 1998.
TIME OFF
You have the legal right to time off for: maternity, parental and
family emergency leave, looking for work during redundancy notice,
trade union and health and safety activities and some public duties
like a JP.
If you are 16 or 17 years old and have left school without good
enough qualifications you have the right to time off during working
hours to undertake study or training leading to a relevant qualification
where this would help your employment prospects. The amount of time
off which your employer must give is “reasonable” taking account
of the nature of your job and workplace. You will be paid at your
normal hourly rate and have the right not to be victimised for requesting
or taking study time.
All other time off arrangements depend on the contract. However
a GMB/NUS survey found that 60% of term time workers do get time
off for academic reasons and if you are having problems in combining
your studies with your work you should contact
Massive Youth. Equally if there are other occasions on which
you need time off but where there is no specific legal right (for
example, in cases of bereavement) you should again ask Massive Youth
to make representations on your behalf.
MEALS AT WORK
If you work in the retail food sector you may be offered free meals
as part of your employment contract. Obviously this is a useful
benefit but take care that the employer has not costed it by paying
inferior wages. Workers in catering also need to be careful in opposite
situations where they are told they cannot eat food prepared at
work. Unfortunately there have been cases of employees being dismissed
for breaking this kind of rule. Massive Youth would obviously help
and advise you in such a situation but to make sure that this doesn’t
arise it is always useful to have sorted out clearly with your employer
right at the beginning of your contract what are your rights to
food produced on the premises.
You may also be in a workplace where there is a canteen. Most provide
subsidised food although it is rare to have a canteen at no cost
to the employee.
UNIFORMS
Many workplaces now provide staff with a uniform. This may be to
protect your own clothing from the wear and tear which it would
be subjected to particularly if working in environments where clothing
can get dirty.
Employers have a duty to ensure that any uniform provided does
not infringe any race or sex discrimination issues, either directly
or indirectly. For example, if a skirt is required to be worn as
part of a uniform, Muslim women could not comply as they are required
to cover their legs, and insistence could amount to indirect race
discrimination.
But a uniform is also a form of company logo allowing customers
to identify the product better. If your workplace does provide a
uniform you need to check what the arrangements are about cost and
cleaning.
Most companies like the majority of banks and London Underground,
provide the uniform free. Some, like LU, will provide cleaning tokens
so that you can get the uniform cleaned whereas others, for example,
McDonalds give staff an annual allowance towards clothing. If you
are being made to pay the costs of your uniform or cleaning and
feel that this is unfair, contact
Massive Youth.
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Holidays