Employee Rights - Working Hours?

since you have NEW owners of the company, they are not required to follow the contract you were previously given by your past owners. they are allowed to make a new contract/work schedule to their liking. so to answer your question, yes, they can, because the past contract that you had before is no longer in effect due to the changes the new owners made. i guess you employees will have to work something out with someone picking up your children or change around THEIR schedule in order for you to stay on task with your work schedule. it is not the responsibility of your new employer/owner of the business to accommodate to your childs needs. YOU have to work around what HE/SHE wants you to do for work.

No way... she's from Northern California or is this the state that she works in. I believe in California it is mandatory to break for lunch at least 30 minutes or more and companies are required to give two, 15 minute breaks in an 8 hour work day. It is against the law to deny an employee a lunch break for every 8 hours worked.. She needs to report it immediately. Does the company she work for have an HR department? Has she tried to verbally or in writing, report these incidents? When she became an employee was there a clause in there in which she would be prohibited to find legal representation outside of the company ( I think it's called the arbitration clause). California has strict laws that prohibit any company from doing any of this. Tape recording is deemed inadmissible only if there was a specific rule put forth by the employer prohibiting this and/or I believe it depends on the situation. Your mother in law needs to report these incidents to the labor board as soon as possible and if she gets fired she will need to inform the unemployment agency as well (that's only if it gets that far) the labor board will direct her as to what she can do. Tell her if she decides to do this that she should follow through with them as well... sometimes you case can fall through the cracks. Good luck and I'm sorry to hear about that.

The new owners are under no obligation to continue with the schedules you had prior to their aquiring the business unless doing so was a condition of the purchase. If the scheduling works well and productivity is optimal then an informed employer would not want to mess with that, however if they are of the "new broom sweeps clean" mindset then they will likely lay all of you off, set new standards for the employment of new employees and start over rehiring only those who can meet the standards. Too bad but no employer I know of is ever more interested in the welfare of their employees than they are in their own bottom line as they see it.

If you are talking about employment in the UK then your new employer cannot change your original hours of work if they are set out in your contract and you can make a claim in law for constructive breach of your employment contract if they do. This is also true if they change the number of hours a week that you are required to work (irrespective of the times of day that you start and finish).

From a business perspective you could argue that there are benefits to the company through continuing with the original arrangements such as good staff moral, reduced lateness and attendance problems.

You could also discuss with them increasing the rights of staff to work from home on the basis that it would allow them to reduce the amount of office space and costly office infrastructure which would improve the bottom line.

I'm sorry. This is so ridiculously funny to me as an American. Just get your butt to work at 9 AM and stop the complaining. As for after school activities, we all just figure it out somehow, you have to get a bit creative but it gets your brain juices flowing - it certainly isn't our employer's issue. We laugh over here because trying to find the Europeans at work is always such a crap shoot. You guys are NEVER where you are supposed to be, lunch, holiday, in late, out early - GOOD LORD, just stay still will you?:-). The Italians, Spaniards and Greeks are the worst offenders but all over Europe trying to find a European at work during normal business hours is a running joke over here.

I hope it works out for you - I seriously do because you seem like a nice person and this is definitely an inconvenience, but you have no idea how funny this question reads in America. Thanks for the laugh.

@ Will -- oh chill out. Don't be so sensitive -- can't you read a bit of tongue in cheek. Anyway this time difference really does SUCK when I have to watch the Arsenal game while simultaneously supervising homework! It's almost as if my children have no idea how important this game is.

No they can't. If your contract says what is written in the first paragraph (more or less) then it's a legally binding document with management cannot change with your consent.

Whether you'll have any luck with it is a different matter, when our management tried it (from potential 9-5 to between 8-8) they failed because PCS stood up for us.

You have the right to negotiate whatever hours you wish to work with your employer. However, they are under no obligation to give you hours that they don't wish to give. You are then free to quit and find an employer with a more satisfactory work schedule.

Emma,

You can't find a European during normal business hours because of the time difference. While your tired old stereotype of lazy lunching Europeans is way off the mark there is one stereotype you have got right, that of the stupid, intolerant yank!