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No fixed hours contract in retail

Rebecca

Hi everyone, 

Hoping for some advice. I am looking at current employment contracts for a friend. They are in retail and offer hourly contracts. They have had staff for over ten years on 'hourly contracts' who work on average, 50 hours per week. 

In my eyes, I have always worked with salaried contracts, where they are paid a salary for fixed hours that they work. When I see a 'paid by the hour' contract, I automatically believe this is zero hour contract, as they are paid for the hours they work, they have no fixed hours or guaranteed income, although entitled to statutory rights. 

I guess my question is, if an employee has worked for say ten years, averaging a consistent 50 hour week, should they not be entitled to a salaried, permanent contract? My friend advises every staff member is happy with their current contract, but my HR mind is thinking differently. 

Thanks in advance

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  • Hi Rebecca
    I worked in retail for 20 years and judging by the wording you posted below, my view would be this.

    - the contract wording of "Your normal working hours are XX per week. Hours each week to be worked flexibly between the above hours in accordance with the weekly roster." Is pretty standard in most retail environments as often employee availability and staffing levels vary each week due to the time/ day/week/month of the year.

    E.g. you'll need more people in work on a saturday/Sunday than week day, and at lunch than 1st thing in the morning. Equally November December will usually need 1.5 -2 x the staff of say August due to sales volume. If people are on permanent fixed hours every week/day then this flex isn't possible.

    Secondly the contracts are permanent (judging by this wording) and are not zero hours as they are stipulating the number of hours the firm will guarantee each week. E.g. 16hrs, 20 hrs, 30 etc. This means the person is guaranteed those as a minimum. If it was zero hours, it would say that. Hence they are on a salary of those hours on x amount per hour.

    Finally, I agree with a previous comment- the issue isn't the contract wording, the problem is the 50 hr weeks. The max people should be working, unless they've signed the waiver, is 48 with the working time directive. Before doing anything I'd get your friend to check if employees have signed the waivers or not. If they haven't, then the firm is probably breaching that particular law. If they have signed it though (and this is most often the case) then the employee has waived their legal right, and there's nothing wrong.
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