Long post - apologies in advance!!

Posting in the British Moms group incase any one on Glow is familiar with UK NMW legislation, it’s surprising what backgrounds people on here can have and knowledge we can share! I have a fairly good understanding around most NMW ruling and mainly the application of it (work in payroll) but this scenarios thrown a curveball at me!

My SIL started a new job this week, she was specifically told at interview the shift pattern was 4 on 4 off 12 hour shifts and that was exactly the reason she wanted to move from her current zero hours job - shift regularity.

She started Tuesday and it turns out the shifts are all over the place (for everyone). Some days it’s like 7-9am then come back 3pm to 10pm then back in the following day for a 12 hour, definitely not 4 on 4 off like she was told and the ladies she was working with said they definitely don’t do 4 on 4 off, it’s massively sporadic. The contract didn’t specify the shift pattern, only average weekly hours so she only has word of mouth about it given at interview.

Fortunately she’s on very good terms with her current employer and has security in that job so she advised the new company she doesn’t want to be rostered any more as she was told a completely different shift pattern to what the company actually offered. By this point she’s worked about 24 hours over those couple of days and is owed about £200 in wages.

They’ve told her she’s not entitled to that £200 because in the contract it says they can deduct from wages costs to cover shifts not worked in notice period. Problem being, she’d 1. Not been given any roster yet to know what hours she would be working and 2. Hasn’t had any training/inductions etc which would obviously be a financial burden to the company to put her through those knowing she will leave (added to the fact some of the training costs are also deductible) and 3. They were putting her in a compromising position asking her to administer medication despite having had no training (she refused) and also asking her to work alone tomorrow for the morning hours and to also lock up once she’s done. I should add this is care work, so to leave a completely new, untrained member of staff that’s done 2 days working alone with vulnerable people is shocking in its own right 😨

This wording about deducting the shift costs from wages is detailed in the contract - and when I look on ACAS / Gov.uk it does say something about being able to make deductions from wages if it’s in the contract - but surely this cant result in her not being paid AT ALL. She was only on NMW anyway so by all deducting that money for “cover” they’re essentially breaching NMW laws (in my eyes?)

The woman she spoke to actually said she probably owed THEM money to cover shifts but as a goodwill they wouldn’t pursue her? 🤯 this blows my mind, and is making me think no way can this be legal. It’s not as though she’s been overpaid and owes them money for time she hasn’t worked.

She’s wary to go down the ACAS route because she’s convinced that because it’s in the contract there’s nothing can be done about it, but something really doesn’t sit right with me. She’s only 21 so this is her first experience of a shitty employer (we’ve all been there 😕) so she just feels so deflated because issue with the shifts aside, she really liked the job and people she’d been placed with.

Like I said, I’m familiar with implementing NMW in a payroll setting, but not too clued up on all the legislation behind it so I was wondering if anyone on here had come across anything like this?