Can you still opt out of working on a Sunday as I have been told you can no longer do this?

Question

A friend recently trold me that if his son did not agree to be available to work 7 days a week he would not get his jobseekers allowance. I am now wanting to claim this but Sundays are my family day and I do not want to work on them. I am willing to work Monday to Saturday all day if necessary.

TO add I am a mother of three school aged children one of whom is only nursery age. my husband has recently had to give up work due to ill health.

Answer 1

No this right has not been taken away. If an employer requires you to work on a Sunday they must first get you to opt in - this means receiving written agreement from yourself that this is O.K. Shops and betting workers (I think factory also, but not sure) then have the right to opt out of the agreement at any time. This is done by serving three months notice on the employer that you wish to stop working sundays. Remember unless you opt in in the first place, you cannot be required to work a sunday.

Answer 2

In careers like retail, medicine, call centers, etc employees are needed to cover different shifts, sometimes even 24/7. These employers will usually tell you up front that you will be required to work some "off" hours up front or for specific positions because they want you to be satisfied with your position and stay working there, but they don't have to and it is always possible that their needs will change and so will your schedule. This is not an issue of religious tolerance, and religious discrimination law simply means that everyone should be treated equally regardless of their religion, it does not mean that you automatically get all your religious holidays and weekly holy days off. The only circumstance where it would constitute religious discrimination is if (for example) there were 5 employees with the same job title. One of those employees was Christian and 2 were Jewish and 2 were Muslim. The Muslims were given off every friday, allowed prayer times, given off holy days, etc and the Jews were also given off to go to temple and for their religious holidays and the Christian was forced to cover these times and to work every Sunday and all the Christian holidays. You could then say that the Christian was being singled out and treated differently than other employees due to their religion (assuming the company had enough employees to be covered by anti-discrimination laws, which I think is 25). I know that may seem unfair at first glance, however you have to remember that there are many careers to choose from where work is always conducted on a regular monday thru friday daytime schedule and off hours are not an issue and even in careers like retail or call centers there are employers that do not have extended hours of business. You chose to work in retail and to work for a company that is open on sundays and now are expecting the employer to accomodate your schedule preferences. Your employer obviously needs someone in your position working on Sundays now (even if they did not before) and if they let you have sunday off they will have to spend more money to hire another staff member to cover that shift, which would be an undue burden for your company. I am assuming here that the person filling your position if you stepped down would also be required to work sundays. Anti-discrimination laws do not cover how much you make or what position you hold, they cover your employment as a whole with the company, and your company didn't fire you and it doesn't sound like they created a hostile work environment, they offered you a different position that does not require sundays to accomodate your needs. You may not make as much, but you can fulfill all the requirements of the job (including schedule) and you still have a paycheck coming in and any benefits you are given. As far as the law is concerned, they have fulfilled their responsibility and possibly even gone above and beyond by finding you an open position within the company that meets your religious needs, and in a country with 10% unemployment you've actually come out of this remarkably unscathed.

Answer 3

You can only opt out of working Sundays if you were employed with the company before Sunday trading laws where changed. If your son is looking for work that now classes Sunday as a normal working day ie retail, leisure industry & he refuses to apply for the job or take up offered employment because it states would have to work on a Sunday he is breaking his Jobseekers Agreement which he signed when he 1st made a claim to benefit & this could affect his benefit.

He needs to speak to his adviser & change his job goals to ones that don't include Sunday work.

Answer 4

It depends on the employer, some are okay with it, most are not

I live in Ohio, my husband is a manager for a large retail store, the employees that he has now are allowed to have schedule conflicts for Sundays if it was part of their hiring contract. New employees must have open schedules to get a job, they are not allowed to request any specific days off. They can request personal days but are not guaranteed to receive them. This is company policy and they operate out of many states, there is no law that stops them from enforcing this. The employees only have off on Christmas and Thanksgiving....when the store is closed.

I'm not saying it's fair...I'm just telling you how it is

Answer 5

It depends on your contract if it says over 7 days. This is different with job seekers allowance, If they say they don't want to work a Sunday they are not looking for work everyday off the week most company's now of days want people 7 days a week, They should be prepared to work any day off the week to take a job if they are claiming benefit's

Answer 6

under the european working time directive you can work no more than 12 days out of 14, but there is no requirement for when these days are, so technically you have to make yourself available for work on any day, however..........

when you 1st start claiming job seekers you get so many weeks to find a job in the area (inclkuding working hours) that suits your experiance, so use that period to your advantage and find new job in that time, alternatively.....

if you turn down jobs with sunday working they stop your money. however if you were not chosen for those jobs you wouldnt lose anything. so how difficult can it be to totally stuff up a job interview and not get the job.

Answer 7

Weekends are normally mandatory, unless you are management or have been there a long time. new employees need to be thankful for just having a job. No one wants to work on Sundays, go apply at Hobby Lobby, they are closed on Sundays.

Answer 8

In stead of spending your time on Answers, why dont YOU look for a job - somewhere that doesn't open on Sundays or tell them at the interveiw you can't work Sundays, then the problem is solved. You won't have to apply for job seekers allowance because you'll have a job !!

Answer 9

you're being perfectly reasonable in my book, but the Broo isn't noted for reasonableness. The legislation that probably defines this came about from the EU Working Time Directive. I would google that and see if you can get a distilled explanation of it.

Answer 10

At my place of employment if you can't work Sunday's then you can't work there. It's a hospital and hospital's operate 24 hours a day seven days a week. They don't even close for Christmas.