Holiday

[Morris999]

It’s just not Tesco though is it, it’s all of retail, hospitality and the entertainment sector that do this, all championed by the last Labour government!
As for time off, whether you work 1 or 5 days per week you get the same amount of time off per year( before long service).

As for the holiday situation for the rest of the year I fully agree it should have waited till next holiday year, however I can see why Tesco have done it when they did.
And to be honest those who will be most affected by this, will be those that only ever book off their longest contracted shift.

[happyharry]

As a proportion you get the same amount of time off, but if you do 5 days a week and are only contracted to 2, you won't get the same amount of holiday as someone contracted to 5. At the moment Tesco are asking people to work those hours consistently.

[Morris999]

If you book your 2 days off Tesco cannot make you work the rest of the week.
They can ask but cannot force it.
You’ve the same rights to the full 7 days off as to someone who works 5 days a week.
This is clearly a manager issue in your store(and others before the reply’s come).
I know the part-time flex’s on my department get at least the full 7 days off.

[Redshoes]

You are contracted for two days, you book two days off you get a week.
You are contracted for five days, you book five days off you get a week.
You do regular overtime and you go on holiday you get more than two days pay.

You should not be asked to work overtime during your holiday. If you request to do so you can but not during every holiday, you need time out and should not be disturbed or pressured into working.

[happyharry]

You are both missing my point. New starters are given minimum hours and most need extra to make a living wage - they have to do those extra shifts to survive. In our department the extra hours are constantly there, in fact they struggle to get people to cover them all, so why not give them those shifts in the first place? We now have such a high turnover of staff, because once someone finds 'full time' employment they leave. I think this was always going to happen, but wonder what the cost to Tesco really is considering the amount of training etc that is now constantly needed?
Of course it's up to the individual whether they do the overtime or not, I understand that, but if the hours are always there then let them have them with the holiday entitlement to match. Managers have told new starters that they will be able to work 5 days a week even though they're only contracted to 2, surely that's not right  - how would you feel about working all those shifts but not receiving all the benefits? This has been an issue in our department for some time, in fact even the hours originally advertised for new starters are rarely the ones they end up with. People believe that once they start they'll be able to pick up more 'permanent' hours as time goes by - it's not happening.
As more full time staff leave, they are being replaced by part timers who will hopefully work additional hours (most do) for less holiday benefits.

[NightAndDay]

It's a balancing act, there once was a time when full time employees were more common and staff morale was higher, the change in normality started towards the end of the Clarke era and continued to get worse under Lewis's leadership, the main reason why the business prefers to have say someone on a 22.5 hour a week contract and another on 15 rather than a full timer on a 36.5 hour a week contract is redundancy (in both the literal and business definition of the word).

For example, if a store comprised mainly of full timers with a few part timers here and there, the stores wage budget would be used on fewer total member of staff, fewer staff means if a full timer goes off sick or goes on holiday, it's harder to cover them. Also a full timer would have greater employment rights and incurred costs than a part timer, especially in a redundancy situation.

That was the thinking behind this shift away from having full time employees, but as you said, they were too short sighted to consider that there are other opportunities outside of Tesco as well as lower hours meaning less loyalty and committment. It's a balancing act they got wrong, the results are higher staff turnover (as people will leave for greener pastures, that's just basic economics) and as a result less experienced staff, leading to more errors and work being done at a slower pace meaning more labour hours required.

Essentially it's a balancing act, part timers are advantageous to business operations, but if you try give too few hours you lose the committment, loyalty, experience and eventually the staff.

[Totot]

Because a cheap financial strategy, to save a bit of money.
For example someone with 5 days contracted hours with 7 hours a day and 29 days total holidays entitlement.
£ 9.30 x 7 = 65.1 a day
65.1 x 5 = 325.5 a week.
325.5 x 4 = 1302 per pay day
1302 x 13 = 16.926 per year.
Holiday 29 x (7 x 9.30) =1.887,9
Total expenditure for tesco for this person per year = 18.813,9
Per pay day = 18.813,9 / 13 = 1447.22
Per week = 1447.22 / 4 = 361.8
Per day = 361.8 / 5 = 72.3
Per hour = 72.3 / 7 = £ 10.33

Not mention if someone go off sick etc. With lower holiday entitlement, the cost per hour will be less.
I think this kind of thing need to be solve in government level, to make a proper law that not allowed company to do this trick or any outsourching contract that will make employee lost their right, but to which side the government will take side or even neutral, that will be the question. Supposed to be those union job, but as we all know.

Meanwhile easy mathematical style of management will still continue to be used because it is easy and give straight impact to financial statement, regardless the negative side.

[Morris999]

We are not missing the point about full-time vs part-time at all.
It’s an argument that’s been had for years and is never going to go away.
Tesco like many other businesses have decided the part-time flexi route benefits them more than lots of full-time unflexible colleagues.

However I’m still failing to see what holiday benefits you keep mentioning that part-time colleagues don’t get compared to a full-time colleague.
They both get the same time away from work, and the part-time colleagues will still get paid for overtime they would have worked if not on holiday too.
And I’d hazard a guess it costs more to have a part-time flexi who does lots of overtime each week off than a full-time colleague who doesn’t.

The only thing I can think of is long service awards for holidays, which on the face of it it will seem that full-timers get more holidays, but that is only because they would have worked longer for Tesco.
These same long service awards for holidays are also there for part-time colleagues if they do the years at Tesco.
5,10 and 15 years.

[happyharry]

'However I’m still failing to see what holiday benefits you keep mentioning that part-time colleagues don’t get compared to a full-time colleague.'

I think I've already explained that as simply as I can.

[Nomad]

Administrator Comment

Two posts deleted for being way off topic.

[newguy20]

If you change departments after submitting holiday requests are they still honoured? If the new department is 'fully booked' the days you want off, you're still entitled to your agreed time and they have to find cover, right?

[NightAndDay]

Yes, once leave is authorised, that is that. We've had it before in Express where people transferred, their holidays have to be honoured.