Lawyer Destroyer

Short answer At the moment, no. Under the law currently in force in England and Wales, a genuine zero-hours contract does not give you an automatic legal right to guaranteed hours simply because you have worked a regular pattern for a long time. Your entitlement is governed by the terms of your contract and your … Read more

Short answer No. If you are on a genuine zero-hours contract, your employer cannot lawfully stop you from working for someone else. Any clause in your contract that bans you from working for another employer, or that requires you to get your employer’s permission before doing so, is legally unenforceable. You are free to ignore … Read more

Short answer Yes, the essence of a genuine zero-hours contract is that you are free to decline offered work. The employer is not obliged to offer you a minimum number of hours, and in return you are not obliged to accept whatever is offered. Refusing a shift is not, in itself, a breach of contract … Read more

Short answer Whether your employer can add, move or change your shifts at short notice depends mainly on what your contract of employment says, and on the practices that have built up during your employment. There is no general legal rule in England and Wales that fixes a minimum notice period for shift changes for … Read more

Short answer In many cases yes, an employer can require you to work overtime and there is no automatic legal right to be paid for it. Whether overtime is compulsory, and whether it must be paid, depends mainly on your contract of employment. But there are important limits: your average pay across the hours you … Read more

Short answer There is generally no automatic legal right in England and Wales to extra pay for working overtime, night shifts, Sundays or bank holidays. Whether you get enhanced pay usually depends on what your contract of employment says, together with any collective agreement, staff handbook or established custom and practice at your workplace. The … Read more

Short answer Yes, in principle. Being a student does not affect your rights as a worker. What matters is your employment status, not the fact that you are studying. If you are legally classed as an employee, you have two separate statutory rights that can cover a family emergency or a caring responsibility: the right … Read more

The key distinction: employee or worker The phrase “part-time student worker” hides the single most important question, which is your employment status rather than your hours or your being a student. In England and Wales the main family leave rights are almost all reserved for employees, meaning people working under a contract of employment. A … Read more

Short answer No. For a sickness absence of seven days or fewer, your employer cannot require you to produce a fit note (formerly a “sick note”) from a doctor or other healthcare professional. A fit note is only relevant where the absence lasts more than seven days in a row. What your employer can require … Read more

Short answer No. In England and Wales there is no legal duty on an employee to arrange cover for their own shift when they are genuinely too ill to work. Managing staffing, including finding replacements, is the employer’s responsibility. An employer cannot lawfully force you to organise cover as a condition of taking sick leave … Read more

Short answer Yes, you can be entitled to Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) in a part-time, casual or zero-hours job, including a student job, provided you meet the qualifying conditions. Being part-time, casual or on a zero-hours contract does not by itself disqualify you. What matters is your employment status for SSP purposes, your average weekly … Read more

Overview of your position When an employer becomes formally insolvent, employees have a special safety net. Instead of relying on the employer paying you, you can claim certain amounts directly from the government through the Redundancy Payments Service (RPS), which pays out of the National Insurance Fund. This exists precisely because an insolvent employer usually … Read more

Short answer Yes, in principle an employer in England and Wales can recover money it genuinely overpaid you, and the ordinary rules that protect wages do not stop it doing so. However, “can it deduct it” and “can it deduct it in the way it wants” are two different questions. There are important limits, and … Read more

Understanding what deductions are lawful Not every deduction from your pay is unlawful, so the first step is to work out what the deductions actually are. If you work through an agency or umbrella company, some deductions are legitimate and some may not be. Lawful deductions from your gross pay usually include Income Tax under … Read more

Short answer For the great majority of ordinary jobs, including typical student, temporary, part-time, holiday and shop or bar work, the answer is no. A recruitment agency cannot lawfully charge you a fee simply for finding you work or for putting you forward to an employer. The agency is paid by the hirer (the employer), … Read more

Short answer Yes, broadly. Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, once you have completed a 12-week qualifying period in the same role with the same hirer, you become entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as if you had been recruited directly. This is known as “equal treatment”, and it does include equal … Read more

Overview As an agency worker you have two distinct sets of rights. The first set applies from your very first day on an assignment. The second set, mainly about equal pay and basic working conditions, applies only after you have completed 12 weeks in the same role. On top of both of these, some general … Read more

Whether a binding contract exists The key first question is whether your acceptance created a legally binding contract of employment. In England and Wales a contract can be formed once an employer makes a clear job offer and you accept it, even though you have not yet started work and even if nothing has been … Read more

Short answer Whether you must be paid depends on the type of “waiting” and where you are required to be. As a general rule, if your employer requires you to be present at or near the workplace and available for work, that time counts as working time for National Minimum Wage (NMW) purposes and must … Read more

There are two different legal questions bundled into this, and they have different answers. Whether travel time counts as “working time” for health and safety limits under the Working Time Regulations 1998 is a separate question from whether that time must be paid, and paid at the National Minimum Wage. I will deal with each. … Read more