New Contract & Holidays

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Bit of a long winded one, but looking possible options before I pull the plug on these clowns!

I’m currently working on a short term contract - initially 4 months. I started in July, and at the interview I was asked if I had any holiday plans between then and November - which I didn’t.

A few weeks before the contract was due to expire, I was offered a 3 month extension. I asked to speak to the boss before I signed and returned the contract as I needed some time off over Christmas, and wasn’t going to commit until I knew it wouldn’t be an issue. Despite several requests, I never got talking to him, so on contract deadline day I said my goodbyes and thank yous at the end of my shift and walked out the door. The boss came running after me wanting a chat, so I explained the situation - I need these days off or else I’ll not be renewing. His reply was “Of course you can have them off, if you’ve plans made I can’t stop you! Thats why all interviews have the question - it didn’t apply then, but it does now.” The dates were given, and I was granted the holidays.

Fast forward another 3 months, another extension, a different manager, but same crap!

This time I signed the contract, but wrote at the top - “Dates I will not be available for work due to previous commitments, if there is a problem with any of these dates, please inform me before my current contract expires so I can retract this contract” - followed by some dates. I made 3 copies - returned the original to HR, kept a copy myself, and gave a copy to the new manager, just to cover all bases.

A few days later the manager came back with all this “oh I don’t know about this”, and “I’m not sure about that - you’re meant to request your holidays through the system” bs. I simply told him - as far as I was concerned, my contract was up by then - any plans I had after that date was fa to do with him, it wasn’t my problem, but his! If he wanted to extend my contract he had to honour any plans I had already made. I was told to leave it with him.

He came back a few days later - “everything’s sorted - apart from these 2 dates” (the 17th and 18th of March) “I can give you the 18th, but the 17th is looking a bit dodgy, might need you to work with me a bit there.” Since he had sorted out the rest of the dates for me I was feeling generous, so told him I was prepared to come in and do an early shift on the 17th - as long as I was finished early - because I wasn’t heading off until the afternoon. He said he would look into it, but to remind him closer to the time.

So this morning I went in and checked the rota - had me planned in for the 17th and 18th! Said to the manager this afternoon “think there’s been a mistake with the rota, I’m off on friday.” Apparently not! Dirty barsteward screwed me over - “Oh I never agreed to that, you can have the 17th off, but not the 18th!” Told him thats fine, but he has 2 options - 1) get some cover - 2) be severally short staffed, cause either way, I won’t be there! Apparently that’ll be discussed on Monday!

Another driver asked if I had got anything in writing from him, but I didn’t think that was necessary considering I had put it in writing to him and HR?!

I asked today to get confirmation of the other dates off him in writing, but he maintained that wasn’t needed as he had it on his system - despite my argument that his system is clearly ducked!

Regardless, I’ll not be in those dates - but where do I stand on this?

2

just show the copy of the contract, deny any conversation taking place and screw him back. cant see you wanting to work at the place much longer in any case?

3

I would have thought your contract would outline holiday procedures/entitlement & as such, you would be expected to abide by them as per the other employees of the firm. Most places have a ‘holiday request form’ of some description & employees get a copy of said form to confirm holiday dates.

Suppose it depends on what you want to prioritise, the job or the days off.

4

I’m with busteredwards. Your whole complaint seems to be that whilst working as an employee of the company you’re subject to the same holiday booking procedures as the other employees of the company.

Can’t even work out what the problem was and why you had to keep saying you wouldn’t sign contracts unless you got X,Y and Z dates off work - it just looks like you’re being a bolshy prat for the sake of it and it looks like its come home to roost.

So where do you stand? You never followed the company procedure for booking holidays so as a result you’re rota’d for work. If they decide not to give you leeway which they don’t have to do as there is a clear defined procedure for holidays that you’ve not followed you’re coming in and you don’t then you face being unemployed.

5

Conor:
I’m with busteredwards. Your whole complaint seems to be that whilst working as an employee of the company you’re subject to the same holiday booking procedures as the other employees of the company.

Can’t even work out what the problem was and why you had to keep saying you wouldn’t sign contracts unless you got X,Y and Z dates off work - it just looks like you’re being a bolshy prat for the sake of it and it looks like its come home to roost.

So where do you stand? You never followed the company procedure for booking holidays so as a result you’re rota’d for work. If they decide not to give you leeway which they don’t have to do as there is a clear defined procedure for holidays that you’ve not followed you’re coming in and you don’t then you face being unemployed.

No Conor…He had End of Contract dates so any days after that you would not be asking for holidays as you would NOT be there.
If they then want to extend his term he has every right to say OK but I cannot work these days …and they agreed . He had written it on the contract therefore making it legally binding . So if they now want to change the game because they cannot organise a ■■■■ up in a brewery that’s not the drivers problem. He offered to give them a morning back and the planner ■■■■■■ it up . If they agreed to the contract with the writing on it then it’s their mistake not his.
Personally who wants to work for ■■■■■■■■ anyway …And as you keep harping on about you can work to suit you…He is doing the same.

6

Best thing to do is say “Well Boss, I explained what you said to the Wife, and she hit the bloody roof! She said ‘we’ve got something arranged on them days so you’re not working and that’s the end of it’. She’s offered to come down here and explain it to you, shall I tell her to?”

Works every time. :stuck_out_tongue:

7

If the companies holiday request procedures were efficient I could accept that, however this isn’t the case. Requests are made through an online form, accessed by logging into your unique employee account - which is only set up for permanent staff! After myself and some of the other guys on the same contract complained repeatedly that we couldn’t request holidays, a single makeshift account was set up for 7 of us! the few times I attempted to use it, I got a supervisor to check the dates were free before applying, but still got an automated response saying there was already too many off, so it was refused! This always led to more arguments, until I managed to get someone to manually enter the info!

Company policy also states that no more than 2 weeks can be taken together, yet another lad on the same contract was able to get a month off for a holiday he had booked!

8

On my phone here but

I’m sure I’ve seen an official government document that says…
If your wanting a week off your required to give at least 1 weeks notice 2 weeks 2weeks notice etc etc etc.
Obviously the more notice the better

9

Another reason i like my job, before now i have asked my boss on Friday AM if i can get the following Monday off work as i want to go to Ireland on a quick booze weekend with my mates, flight leaves tomorrow etc. Get a phone call later in the day, yes you can but you owe me. Just means at some point in the future if he asks me to work a Saturday I will do it if I have nothing planned or some dung job (Literally as we have a cattle trailer ha) in the future.

10

It seems the OP signed a new contract and added to that NEW CONTRACT a condition relating to holiday. So if the employer accepted that contract, I’d say it’s the employers issue. Sounds to me that the manager is a ■■■■ who manages in a dictatorial manner and probably loves the feeling of his/her power. It’s probably a crap place to work due to this, as there is unlikely to be an ounce of good will and effort from the workforce towards the management. Just a guess, but doubt I’d be wanting to work there…

P.S. Has the manager every heard of agency cover? :open_mouth:

11

Harry Monk:
Best thing to do is say “Well Boss, I explained what you said to the Wife, and she hit the bloody roof! She said ‘we’ve got something arranged on them days so you’re not working and that’s the end of it’. She’s offered to come down here and explain it to you, shall I tell her to?”

Works every time. :stuck_out_tongue:

Only needed to ask my girl to come to work once. I now pick and choose my days off, shift patterns and start times on a whim… :grimacing:

12

blimey he isn’t in a full time job he is on a 3 month contract - he is legally allowed holidays if he had pre booked those dates he can take them it was agreed.

the issue will be if he says sorry I am not working will he lose the 3 month contract, my own opinion is I wouldn’t want to work there after in any case so would move on, if he loves the job etc. then does he back down and risk further disruptions in the future.

also seems strange they have 7 drivers on 3 month contracts!

13

Phone in sick and ■■■■ em

14

Thanks for the replies folks,

I’m sure I’ve seen an official government document that says…
If your wanting a week off your required to give at least 1 weeks notice 2 weeks 2weeks notice etc etc etc.
Obviously the more notice the better

I informed them in January that I needed 2 days off in March - so I would say I’m more than covered there. :smiley:

It seems the OP signed a new contract and added to that NEW CONTRACT a condition relating to holiday. So if the employer accepted that contract, I’d say it’s the employers issue.

It was a contract extension, stating that the original end date was being changed to the new end date - which is the end of April, so not much of it left - and if we wanted to accept the extension we needed to sign and return the letter. I signed it, but wrote on the bottom that I wouldn’t be available on the following dates, if it was an issue to let me know once received, and I would go on the original date. I never heard anything, so as far as I’m concerned they received in writing that I would be unavailable for work on those dates, and this should be in my personnel file - I didn’t receive anything in writing confirming or declining the days needed, so I’ll not be in.

Sounds to me that the manager is a ■■■■ who manages in a dictatorial manner and probably loves the feeling of his/her power.

Best about it is, he is only acting transport manager as the previous manager left after 6 months. He applied for the job permanently after doing it for the past 2 months, but lost out to a guy who currently works the warehouse! Turns out he doesn’t have any of the qualifications (or people skills) that were stated as being needed, such as the managers cpc.

Has the manager every heard of agency cover? :open_mouth:

seems strange they have 7 drivers on 3 month contracts!

We basically are agency drives, but employed directly - without the benefit of being able to refuse shifts, or apparently avail of holidays! The permanent drivers are given schedules in October giving them there start times and rest days from January to December so they can arrange any plans around these. We don’t get a start time for tomorrow until 3pm today! We do get the same pay and basic hours as the permanent guys, but that’s about it. They had been using agency staff in the run up to xmas, but out of the 10 that started only 1 came back after the induction! And then the union got evolved and put him out and have now refused to let agency drivers on site!