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Ask Employment Law |
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Remember: There is no substitute for legal advice on the actual situation
you find yourself in. The information posted on this site is for general
information only, is based on |
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Question: |
At a call centre, staff
are only paid for time spent on phone calls on a zero hour contract, and not
time spent talking to supervisors etc. Is this lawful? |
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Answer: |
The concept
of a zero hour contract is open to challenge. Arguably if in practice a
worker works at least (say) 10 hours week in week out, then by custom and
practice arguably the employer has an obligation to offer the worker you that
number of hours work every week and you have an obligation to work it. All
workers have the right to the National
Minimum Wage for hours worked. Under the Working Time Regulations,
‘working time’ means any period during which [a worker] is working, at his
employer’s disposal and carrying out his activity or duties (reg 2). All
three requirements must be satisfied in order for the period to constitute
working time. For example ‘On-call’ time is working time where a worker is
restricted to their work place but not in circumstances where the worker,
whilst on-call, is free to pursue leisure activities. (See
Sindicato de Médicos de Asistencia Publica (SIMAP) v Conselleria de Sanidad y
Consumo de la Generalidad Valenciana: C-303/98 [2000] IRLR 845, ECJ). Article 2(1) of the EU Working
Time Directive appears to require three elements to the definition of working
time— (1)
working, (2) at
the employer's disposal, (3)
carrying out the activity or duty. The
government suggests that a lunch break will not be working time unless it is
designated a working lunch. By way of example, Time spent travelling to and
from the place of work is unlikely to be working time in practice but the
worker who, for example, spends the journey on his or her mobile phone
contracting business (aside from the commission of any offence under road
traffic legislation) will, it is suggested, be working to the extent of
satisfying the definition of the ‘working time’ particularly if the job, to
the employer’s knowledge, necessarily involves this. It would
appear likely that activities such as visiting the toilet, getting a glass of
water, sending a fax or walking over to a supervisors desk are all part and
parcel of your normal work. Assuming that is correct all such activity
reasonably connected with duties at a telephone call centre should therefore
count to the calculation of ‘working time’ This should therefore count
towards the calculation of hours worked and therefore the calculation of your
pay. Last
reviewed: July 2010. |
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Employment
Solicitor Reculver Solicitors Tel
0207 324 6271 Regulated
by the Solicitors Regulation Authority ©
Reculver Solicitors. 2005- |
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