changes to rotas without staff consultation

[meggiemay96]

Hi Can anyone help please?

I work at a college for students with learning disabilities. We currently work a 3 week rolling rota of shifts of 7.30am -3.30 pm and the 3pm to 11 pm. We currently work 1 in 3 weekends. We are all having meetings about changes to the rota as the current rota does not meet the needs of the students. The trouble is no one has been consulted and no one has seen a copy of the rota so how can we comment on something that we have not seen. We had a rather vague e mail last week giving us some details that our weekend are going to change to 2 out of 3 and the hours will change from 7.30 to 5 and 4.30 to 11pm but during this time we do not get breaks and are with the students the whole time. Also as part of our contract we have to do sleep ins which currently work well as we come in at 3 finish at 11 stay the night and tehn get up for work at 7.30 the next day. I know its a bit of killer but it does work. They now want to change it to late late early early which means that if you work a late you stay and then get up and go home the next day and then come back in for your shift later on but if your an early you will have to come in the day before at 11pm abd then get up for the work the next day. I know that we have not got a leg to stand on and they will proberly go ahead and change the rotas anyway but we all feel very under valued at the moment and feel like we are being treated like kids. We all love our jobs and would hate to feel that we are being pushed out and would have to find another job as the new rota hinders us from seeing families.

Hope someone can just give me a few ways of how we can get our message across that no one is happy at the moment.

Many thanks

[leclerc]

Re: changes to rotas without staff consultation

I will bump this one up but Teaboy2 and militant are pretty good on the employment stuff.

[Jennie wren]

Re: changes to rotas without staff consultation

hi maggiemay
I am no mastermind but do they not have to have consultation with you for any changes to your contract such as working hours? I'm sure they do. And to say you cant have a break from 7:30am -5:00pm is breaking your working time regs. i'm sure you are entitled to a 20 minute rest break if your working day is more than 6 hours. this will need clarification though but that is my understanding. Take a look at direct.gov or at the acas website.

[bluebottle]

Re: changes to rotas without staff consultation

Unless you have opted out of the Working Time Regulations as regards the number of hours worked per week, the Regulations require a minimum of 11 hours' break between each shift and other legislation requires a break of at least 20 minutes after four hours. If you are working more than eight hours, you are entitled to a further obligatory 30-minute break. Speak to ACAS, but my view is that your employers are potentially in breach of the law.

[miliitant]

Re: changes to rotas without staff consultation

the working time regs do have exemptions, staff who live inn, care home workers, au pairs for example

you must have a minimum of a 10 hour break in between shifts and a 24 hour break once a week

to do a fundamental change to your contract of employment, hours for example, a consultation is needed between the staff and employer

a 20 minute break for more than six hours duty is a statutory requirement

also, they need to be discssing with the staff "equality impact assessments " on any change to your contract of employment, not to mention family friendly policies

you mention a college, have you spoken to the local union rep on this, even if you are not in a union