Getting clocked out early at work/being forced to work for free

[Ghost]

Recently I got myself a job at a large, corporate run food establishment, I found myself out of work just before Christmas and have had no luck finding work until I got offered a position there. At the moment I am working in the kitchen and I have to say it is by far the most stressful and physically tiring job I have ever done, not because it is difficult, but because I'm usually stuck up there on my own when really there should be two people. I hate the job but it's only a short term thing and at the moment I'm just grateful for the hours, however there is a big issue I am having.

I'm on closes and basically their policy is you have to do all of the cleaning in one hour, if you go over that it's on your own time. Thing is it is impossible for me to finish the cleaning within that time. In one hour I have to defrost food for the next day, clean two breading tables, clean a filter box, do all of the washing up for the kitchen and downstairs in the assembly area plus sweep and mop, in one hour by myself. Even the supervisor who has been there for more than 5 years who trained me takes almost 2 hours to do it. I'm lucky to finish 30 minutes later than scheduled and the last week or so every night when I have gone to clock out I find out that the closing manager has already clocked me out. In the last week alone I have lost about ?20 because of this and I'm beginning to have enough. Is this actually legal? If I was on salary wage then I can understand but I'm not, I'm getting minimum wage which is the lowest that the can legally pay me. The most obvious solution is to just quit, but I'm not doing that until I find a replacement job first. I can't get out of the kitchen or stop doing closes as nobody wants to do it. Also I'll be moving abroad anyway in July or August once my degree is finished and I need the money so I'm just trying to stick it out until then. It's just infuriating when you bust your balls trying to work as hard as you can and then find out you didn't even get paid for the time you worked.

[ShadowDancer]

Isnt this what the ***** call hardship. Long term solution, vote better ****ing politicians.

[ShadowDancer]

listen to this too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WvE5RIkKkk

[charlesr]

Call HR and ask. They should have very clear guidelines. They may even be breaching their insurance by having employees on the premises when they should not be there.

[Ghost]

I'm not sure but I don't think that's the case, only reason I have heard is that they don't want to increase their labor percentage as the store manager will get pissed off

[ShadowDancer]

Sorry for my drunken advice. I'm sorry you're having an unfair time of it Ghost.

[CatCopter]

Here we go i think this is quite clear
https://www.gov.uk/overtime-your-rights/overview

[Lebowski]

Some tips from when i used to do your job (in my younger days i used to work for the uk's finest deep fried los pollos chain too)

start everything earlier they don't expect you to clean everything within that hour so don't play by the book. Gauge what you need for the evening and clean as you go along some of the lads i used to work with had this down to a fine art so much so they would spend half the evening smoking outside.

I take it your supervisor is not there on an evening if so you should be able to clean the display cabinets and the trays quite early on we used to put everything on one tray in the hot cabinet, and take out and clean some of the filters early on too, as for the breading table you only need one if there is only one of you, also you don't need all the fryers after a certain point too so clean them early on too, defrost early gauge what you needed cook it up and then spend the last two hours cleaning and over hold stuff too every store dose it,

i worked at three different store's within my time with them and they all had how they all had little tricks they used to do so they would get finished on time, I was taught by some very lazy people and we used to fight over who could work in the kitchen it would normally be the staff who spoke very little English though that got the kitchen duty most of the time,(gits) i much preferred cooking to dealing with the drunkards of Headingley.

Fires, robbery's, cross dressing cricket fans and a 6 foot odd drunkard vaulting the counter to escape a mob of baseball bat wielding psycho's. we though he was trying to rob us but he ran in the back locked himself in the toilets and began crying like a baby before the police had to come and drag him out. The fun we used to have these where just some of the many highlights of working there.

[QualityChimp]

It's great to think the management are making unreasonable demands, which leads the staff to cut as many corners as possible.

Are negligence, complacency, despondency, hatred, squalor, uncleanliness, disregard, neglect and jizz some of the Colonel's secret ingredients?

[Lebowski]

a massive bag of salt, some pepper some flour and pressurised cooking are the secret ingredients.

Management didn't used to give two ****s what you did as long as chicken was sold waste was low and the store was clean for the next day.

Let me tell you a little story about one of the robbery's i was witness too, young lad walks in hood over face, I'm in the back cleaning he demands money from the counter staff waving this crappy little knife type thing about, The guy on the counter legs it round the back and we all hightail it to the lockable office to call the police and watch him on the cctv. Mr hoody then grabs the big ass till off the counter and legs it towards the door he gets so far and because this till is plugged in it pings out of his arms and smashes against the counter, mr hoody looks puzzled and legs it empty handed, the funny thing was it was just a big calculator and key pad really as the cash draw was under the counter and bolted down.

So then we have to ring the area manager. The area manager or piggy as he came to be known, was a fat red faced man very angry all the time, annoyed at having to talk to anyone and a real nob head, His first question "how much money did they take", second question "any damaged", he rants at us about the broken till, then as hes about to hang up as an after thought he asks "are any staff are injured". i think was was more to do with him wanting to know if we needed staff from another store to open up, than actual concern for his staff.

I doubt the jizz thing happened theirs always some rumor about the oil containing traces of sperm at a certain store but how would they test for this and wouldn't the oil just burn it up. then theirs the famous rat story about it falling into a breading machine, breading the chicken is done by hand and i think you would notice a bloody big rat as your chucking flour water and salt all over it,

[QualityChimp]

I doubt the jizz thing happened theirs always some rumor about the oil containing traces of sperm at a certain store but how would they test for this and wouldn't the oil just burn it up. then theirs the famous rat story about it falling into a breading machine, breading the chicken is done by hand and i think you would notice a bloody big rat as your chucking flour water and salt all over it,

Did you know that McDonalds have four different shapes for their nuggets to make them look like they haven't just been formed in a machine. They are the boot, bow tie, ball and bell.

[Sketcz]

I want Lebowski to tell more stories. These are great.

The guy who vaulted the counter. Who were the baseball psychos? Just some guys with bats looking to rough someone up? Did he sleep with one of their wives? I need details!

I once worked in a pork factory. All the plastic meat trays that go to Asda, Waitrose, etc all came off the same line. If you saw what went on in there, you'd never buy store meat again. I now buy everything from my local butcher...

[Lebowski]

i think he had been sleeping with one of the guys girlfriends, so they chased him through town he was a massive bloke too very well built and we initially thought he was after the till as the supervisor was taking it off to cash up, but he ran straight past her and into the staff toilets, we had to call the police to get him removed and when he came out he was crying his eyes out snot running down his face and everything, They where more after scaring him and roughing him up a bit though as we spoke to the guys who chased him in, They where more than happy that they had done there job of frightening him and that he would proably be spending the night in a cell, poor bloke.

The fire incident was funny if you can call flaming, fryers funny we had a rather large woman working there lets call her J and she was a bit not all there and one of the scariest women I've ever met, short hair tatoos and a love of fighting and a very gruff personalty you didn't get on the wrong side of her.

Anyway the back of one of the fryers sets on fire and she looses it running about like an idiot, the guy in the back cooking pulls the powder extinguisher off the wall points it at the back of the fryer and BANG.......
........ J Screams coverng her face and dives over the counter she must of thought one of the fryersfryers exploded and she hits the floor with a thud and slap ive never seen anything that large move so fast, we all just stood there dum struck starring at this very large lady winded on the floor sprawled out like a beached wale.

What had really happened is when the seal breaks on a powder extinguisher it makes a very loud bang sound but J reaction was priceless. After we had all stopped laughing we had the task of clearing the shop up as everything was covred in powder. it wasent fun cleaning everything down and chucking away all the chicken while trying to explain to some very drunk people why we couldn't serve them and that no "we where not open".

[Sketcz]

The joys of retail. The benefit of factory work is you didn't deal with the public. Did you enjoy free meals all day? Or did working there put you off eating the products you were making?

We should have a thread: horror stories from work.

[chojin]

I deliver to these chicken establishments you are talking about...

Sketcz I will say that I am selective when it comes down a customer offering me a freebie meal after doing a delivery, I get to see the ins and outs of pretty much every kitchen in the fast food chain, bar the golden arches, we don't deliver to them!