Any advice? URGENT

[irishboy]

Hi All

 

 

Currently at my work there are 16 people who work 12 hour shifts and 4 people who work 8 hour shifts.

We work 24/7 and receive an unsocial hour allowance when working between 20:00 and 08:00.

 

The people that work 12 hour shifts do nightshifts (20:00 - 08:00) and the people that do the 8 hour shifts work from (18:00 - 02:00).

 

Currently this means that the people that work the 12 hour shifts get around £300 per month more and have an extra 90 rest days per year than the people that do the 8 hour shifts.

 

This is the way it has been for years, however now the organisation is having a national shift review and reducing our working week to 37.5 hours.

 

This means that the staff have been asked to provide a new shift pattern to incorporate this.

The shift pattern that has been proposed involves the 16 people that are working 12 hour shifts getting an extra rest day and increasing their unsocial hours (in effect giving them an extra £50 per month).

The people that are working the 8 hour shifts have had their unsocial hours cut (in effect reducing their monthly wage by £150)

 

The implementation of a shift pattern will be done by a majority vote.

 

None of the people that do the 8 hour shifts want to work the new shift pattern but we have been told that as long as 11 people overall vote for it, it will go ahead.

 

Is it right that the people that will never work the 8 hour shifts get a vote on implementing them?

 

Do the people that currently work the 8 hour shifts have a right to do the same as their colleagues and work 12 hour shifts?

 

We all do the same job and will all work 37.5 hours a week. Surely its not right that the person standing next to me (hypothetically) gets £400 per month more and an extra 90 days off a year?

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Emmzzi]

1. staff voting as opposed to having an input and management deciding is unusual, but not illegal

2. no, not if the business doesn't need those many hours. the business needs are paramount. But you could *ask*. Or if it is a vote you could propose a different pattern, that still nmeets the business needs.

 

What do contracts say about varying hours?

 

I'd want more pay for working after 2am and I'd have longer weekends if I did all my hours in fewer days. But my working days I'd be too tired to do anything else.... it's a trade off, days off versus energy to day anything on a work day other than work

 

Is there union representation?