Legal question about work hours.

[BuzzKillington]

Do I have any rights when it comes to my work schedule, as in, can a manager take days away from me that I was already scheduled for?

My wallet fell out of my pocket at home so I left my time card at home so I had to stay after work to have a manager sign off my manual clock-in/out. When clocking out the manager said he decided that I "wasn't needed" this coming Saturday for a 4 hour shift.

I said "ok" but from what I've heard from others, I could have said "no" or had the shift transferred to another day that I was off if they were in fact, over-scheduled.

(California)

[Bopher]

I would call your local labor board on that one. From what I understand from a lot of labor issues they can ask you not to work but they can never tell you you can't if you've been scheduled. Just like if I'm cutting labor in my store and I ask someone to go home they can say no and I have to find another person who wants to go home. There are some rights but not running a store in California puts me at a disadvantage. I found this link (http://www.dir.ca.gov/DLSE/) on google. You might want to look through that.

[Oneslowz28]

There are certain labor laws that prevent them from cutting hours that have been scheduled. Although it varies from state to state. Call your local labor board and they can tell you what applied here and how to remedy the situation the next time.

[XcOM]

if your contracted for 40 hours a week, they have to provide you with 40 hours, they can ask you if you want to time off but this would be unpaid, they can force you to take the time off (IE "Your not needed this weekend") but they have to pay you for 40 hours still,

[Oneslowz28]

Actually what that means is that if you are contracted for 40 hours a week your employer will have to pay you extra compensation for any time that exceeds 40 hours. Employers are in no way forced to pay you for hours you do not work. They do not have to schedule you for a full 40 hours. However, if they do schedule you for x amount of hours on Y day then they are obligated to pay you for those hours if they cancel it. If you just lay out then they are not obligated to pay you. Keep in mind that what I just stated above applies to hourly workers and your contract you signed when you were hired. In hourly work your only paid for the time you are scheduled to work. (40 hours in general) This means that you will only be paid for the time you are scheduled to work + any over time compensation. So if you work for 51 hours at $10 a hour you will net $510. However if you are a Salary paid worker you are paid differently.

Salary workers are paid a set amount of $ every pay period (bi monthly or monthly). The employer sets your salary (lets say $52k/ year) and then splits that up between the # of pay periods in a year. (26 for bi monthly) This means you will gross $2000 per pay period. Now depending on your employers over time policies for salary paid workers, you may not be compensated for over time. You could work 75 hours a week and still be paid the same pay as the week when you worked 23 hours.

Over here in the USA all full time work is based off of a 40 hour work week. All part time work is based off 29 hours. Your employer is in no way obligated to schedule you for 40 hours or 29 hours unless you are guaranteed 40 or 29 hours per week in your contract. (which is rare as employers like to cut hours when times get tough.)

All this is based off my knowledge gained from being a business owner for several years and my Bachelors in Business Administration.

[XcOM]

it must be different laws in the UK then, as we have to be paid for the contract of 40 hours, but we can opt out of being paid for them

[Drum Thumper]

As the others have said, contact your labor board. And if you are union, by all means let your shop steward or local rep know ASAP.