we've now started a mobile fish and chip van, fingers crossed, we kick off on Wednesday this week, been a bit hectic getting everything sorted out, but everyone loves fish and chips, right

Good luck to your husband in finding something more amenable in this difficult job market.

HOWEVER this has become a common cost cutting tactic in most Industry over the past 15 years - I worked in the Food and Drink sector in various senior management positions until last year - I sometimes felt very uncomfortable with the issues we were forced to negotiate with the "shopfloor" by our bosses - paid overtime has all but been outlawed in some sectors (as per your husband's contract) the favourite phrase is " hours necessary to perform your duties"!, Bank Holidays are regarded normal working days and very few Companies pay enhanced shift pay anymore even for "antisocial" shifts like Saturday night.

The other tactic employed is the contracting out of "non core" businesses eg cleaning - the Agency staff then doing the jobs are frequently paid the minimum wage.

hi Paul, my husband contacted a solicitor as we have legal cover on our house insurance, and was advised that his employer was not acting legally, so he had a meeting with them and his boss agreed rather reluctantly to pay him for the hours he was owed, and he put it on his payslip as a bonus !! very generous of him, NOT.

Still at least he got the money he was owed, but it gave him the measure of his boss really, if he's going to try and wriggle out of paying staff for hours they've worked, so he's now looking to move on.

Hi concerned parent,

Any news on this hope it's good fingers crossed!

Regards,

Paul

he's not a TU member, but said he'll make an appt to see a solicitor next week

Hi concerned parent,

Is your husband a trade union member? good starting point for such disagreements, if not a solicitor may be a second choice, usually they offer a free initial interview and they would tell you if you have a good case.

Regards,

Paul

My husband has been working for a local supmarket, running a post office in the store, they have recently got the contract to run another supermarket in a nearby town, and he is now running both offices, the problem is this, he's worked for them for 2 years, paid hourly (£7.10 now after pay rises - way too low), anyway, since he took over running both post offices, these past 3 weeks he's worked over 60 hours a week, and they've now baulked over paying him hourly. Today he's brought home a new contract, dated 16th Feb, where he's going to be paid a monthly salary, can they do this? he's been underpaid 32 hours for last month, and has so far worked over 100 hours this month and will only be paid for a flat rate of 42 hours a week, it also says he has to work extra hours as deemed fit by them, at no extra pay!!

i really think they're taking him for a ride, the thing is, we're not in a postition for him to create too much protest in case they just tell him to walk, which obviously they know which is why they're doing this

any advice would be greatly appreciated, i've done a bit of checking and it says unless he puts his objections in wriiting and lets them know he's working under grievance then they can just presume he's accepted these conditions even if he doesn't sign the contract