Contracted hours

[Ewelinacha]

Is it legal to have a contract that mixes a annual salary with no agreed working hours? No max or min. Just says basically ‘to meet business needs’. Hours of work stated as : “Your normal hours of work are necessitated by the demands of the business working five over seven days.”

I thought I agreed the salary based on 40hour week but I have been asked afterwords to “work as close to 50h per week as possible” which means I’ve received a massive pay cut after “getting a promotion” and nom I work average 46 hours a week which is essentially a minimum wage.
I have been told by my manager that my overtime starts after 50h but there is no mention about it in contract and I did not sign the opt out regarding working 48h/week.
the industry I work is hospitality.

Thanks in advance !

[ULA]

You have a right to get a written statement from your employer the day you start work and this should set out the main terms of the contract of employment. This written statement must include amongst other things:

• the names of you and your employer
• the date you started work
• the amount of pay and how often you will be paid, for example, weekly or monthly
• the hours of work
• your holiday entitlement, including how many days off you are entitled to and what your holiday pay will be, if any
• notice periods by you and the employer
• the title of the job
• where the job is based, for example, whether you will have to work in more than one location
• what the disciplinary, dismissal and grievance procedures are in the workplace
• what sick pay you are entitled to
• details of the employer’s pension scheme

So given the the above then in short your hours of work should be set out in this statement.

Under the Working Time Regulations you cannot work more than 48 hours a week on average - normally averaged over 17 weeks, unless you have signed a document to say that you have opted out.

Given the industry you are in then I am sorry to say that some companies are not good at complying with employment law and I thing this is not helped by staff shortages. Just my opinion.