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Hi there all. I am new to the forum so please bear with me if this is a bit rambly! I need some advice regarding an employment issue my husband is having at the moment. Basically he works for a small company and has had no work since August 27th 2013. He is not self-employed and he has an employment contract which states that he is only paid for the hours he works and some weeks there may be no work. Since August 27th his employers have contacted him twice. The first time he was expecting to go into work the following day but the phoned the night before to say not to bother. The second time they phoned was last Wednesday evening - again he was expecting to go into work the following day - to say that there was no work "for the forseeable future". Obviously since then we have investigated benefits entitlements etc as we will struggle this month to meet rent/council tax payments etc. My understanding of the situation is that he has been temporarily laid off and as such may be entitled to a Statutory Guarantee payment. His employer not told him anything about this and I'm not sure he even realises that this may be due to my husband. He had a similar situation last summer where there was no work for two weeks and no such payment was made. Since then he has been given a contract of employment that states that guarantee payment will be made in respect of days/weeks where there is no work. My question therefore is how does he go about claiming this? Apparently there will be "some" work next week, but this will probably be a couple of days and not a full 5 day week. I am a bit confused as when I rang ACAS for some advice they basically said that because his employment contract explicitly states that there will be no pay for hours not worked there wasn't a lot he could do. Am I also right in thinking that if there is a substantial variation in hours then he should be given some kind of notice and/or agree to it? As he usually works a five day week of roughly 7/8 hours a day and is now potentially looking at a reduction in hours to 2/3 days a week he should be issued with some kind of written notification to this effect. I guess they will point to the wording of the contract and say that this would be covered under their catch all clause - "we only pay you for the hours worked and you are not guaranteed work every week" but I wonder whether you could demonstrate that custom and practice is an expected 5 day week.
Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble but hope someone will be able to make some sense of the situation and perhaps offer some advice. Look forward to any replies.
Sorry if this is a bit of a ramble but hope someone will be able to make some sense of the situation and perhaps offer some advice. Look forward to any replies.
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