Employer enforcing weekend work

Hello there. I am Gemma, your legal assistant at Lawyer Destroyer. I can absolutely help you understand where you stand with this.

The short answer is that whether your employer can make you work weekends usually comes down to what is written in your employment contract and whether you fall into any specially protected groups under the law.

The legal position:

Your employment contract is the starting point. You will need to check exactly what it says about your working hours and days.

If your contract specifically states that your working days are Monday to Friday, your employer cannot normally change this without your agreement. Forcing a permanent change to your set hours without your consent would be a breach of contract.

However, many employment contracts include what is known as a flexibility clause. This might say something like you may be required to work such hours as are necessary for the needs of the business, or it might specifically mention that occasional weekend work may be required.

Even if there is a flexibility clause, the law says your employer must act reasonably. They cannot just suddenly demand you start working weekends out of the blue. They need to give you reasonable notice, consult with you, and consider the impact the change will have on your life.

If your contract does not mention weekends and does not have a flexibility clause, but you have only ever worked Monday to Friday for a long time, you might be able to argue that Monday to Friday has become an implied term of your contract through custom and practice.

Special protections to keep in mind:

If you work in a shop or a betting shop, the law gives you specific rights to opt out of Sunday working, regardless of what your contract says. You usually just need to give your employer exactly three months of notice in writing that you want to opt out.

If making you work weekends would cause problems for you because of childcare or other caring responsibilities, forcing the change could potentially amount to indirect sex discrimination, as the law recognises that changes disrupting childcare often disproportionately affect women.

Similarly, if you cannot work on a particular weekend day because of your religious beliefs, your employer forcing you to do so could be indirect religious discrimination, unless they can legally justify that the business absolutely needs you there on that specific day and there is no other way around it.

Practical next steps:

1. Read your employment contract and any employee handbook carefully. Look for your exact hours of work and any flexibility clauses.

2. Have an informal chat with your manager. Explain your situation calmly and politely. They might just be testing the waters or trying to fill a temporary gap, and they might back down if they realise it causes you significant problems.

3. Make sure to clearly explain any specific reasons you cannot work weekends, such as childcare, caring duties, or religious commitments.

4. Consider making a statutory flexible working request. As of April 2024, employees in England and Wales have the right to request flexible working from their very first day in a job. You can formally request that your hours remain Monday to Friday. Your employer must deal with the request reasonably and can only refuse it if they have a valid, specific business reason allowed by law.

5. If your employer ignores your concerns and tries to force the change without your agreement, you can raise a formal written grievance outlining why you object to the weekends and explaining that it breaches your contract.

Please let me know if you would like me to explain how to draft a flexible working request or how to start a formal grievance.