Tuesday Q&As

21.2.23

Lots of holiday questions this week!

• Late pension auto-enrolment. Should the employer back date it?

• Pregnancy discrimination

• Holiday calculation

• Holiday calculation 2

• Holiday calculation 3

• Can you be made to work after your finishing time?

• Do I have to work on bank holidays?

• Overly enthusiastic use of CCTV monitoring

• Can you be made to work overtime?

• Restructure and changing shifts

• Useful links

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Late pension auto-enrolment. Should the employer back date it?

Q. Our employer started a pension plan late into our employment, I started on 1st May and first pension contributions were at the end of December, it was a new company and there were people who started before me and haven't had anything until December. Where do we stand with missed contributions?

A. Your employer is under a duty to enrol you on a pension scheme when you start employment (providing you meet the eligibility criteria). I suggest you ask your employer to backdate the contributions to the start of your employment. You will have to backdate your contributions too.

If they fail to do so, you should contact the Pensions Regulator. It has the power to issue fines and enforcement notices. The Regulator can issue an unpaid contributions notice to your employer, ordering them to backdate the payments to the start of your employment. Furthermore, the Regulator has the power to order your employer to pay your personal contributions too. It would be in your employer’s interest to address this now rather than awaiting an investigation from the Pensions Regulator.

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Pregnancy discrimination

Q. I work in hospitality as a floor/duty manager on a 48 hour contract. I am now 6 months pregnant and struggling massively doing 12 hour days on the floor on my feet all day. I have had risk assessments which clearly state I need to have a variation of roles which allow me time off the floor. Initially I was not getting my breaks either, I have also seen that my hours are being overridden and changed to put in breaks that I do not take! I had to make it clear that finishing late at night wasn’t working well for me, and instead I would need an earlier schedule.

I have now been signed off for 2 weeks by the doctors for severe muscular pains as I am in agony from the waist down from being on the floor all day. I have an email from my general manager after I protested that my hours need to be looked at in which he states the only other option is for me to reduce my hours and in turn reduce my pay.