Minimum Hours?

[Disney Ontario]

Hi, just wondering what is the minimum hours in a day you have to work before your work place can send you home? DD 18 started her job at a restaurant when it opened last Nov, now a new manager has come in and after a couple of hours of work girls are getting sent home.

 

[fan1080]

That's likely a matter of your provincial regulations. And, most times, some labor laws are not applied to everyone, they can be related to the industry or type of work.

I would check the labor laws of your province, and how it relates to the type of work she does.

ETA: Found this on the Ontario Ministry of Labour site:

Employees Sent Home After Working Less Than Three Hours: The Three-Hour Rule
When an employee is required to report to work for a shift of 3 hours or longer but works less than three hours, he or she must be paid whichever of the following amounts is the highest:

•three hours at the minimum wage,
or
•the employee's regular wage for the time worked.
For example, if an employee who is a liquor server is paid $10.00 an hour and works only two hours, he or she is entitled to three hours at minimum wage (e.g., $8.90, the liquor servers minimum wage as of March 31, 2010 x 3 = $26.70) instead of two hours at his or her regular wage ($10.00 x 2 = $20.00).

The rule does not apply to:

•students (including students over 18 years of age)
•employees whose regular shift is three hours or less
•where the cause of the employee not being able to work at least three hours was beyond the employer's control.


Clickie my Linkie

 

[Celidh]

I think 3 hours is correct if I remember from when I worked as management. There is a bit of catch though. I think that if you ask for volunteers to go early, that is the way around it. The employee was no longer sent home but went willingly.

A restaurant I used to work at would give you the option of scrubbing walls, etc if it was dead and letting you stay to get your hours or giving you the option to leave early instead. Most young people chose to leave becuase they didn't want to do the "dirty" work.

Not sure how legal this was though but that was their excuse.

 

[SaraMc]

Its three hours. However, if the employee wants to go home before that you dont need to pay them for up to three hours. However if you ask them to leave before the three hours is up, then the employer has to pay for the min. 3 hours.

 

[MedicGoofy]

It is 3 hours HOWEVER...if the employer has their own standars (it sounds like this place does not) to which they are to work so many hours, or get paid so many hours.....

My employer must pay us 4 hrs. If we report for work and they send us home early, they have to pay us 4 hrs. At regular wage.

That's unfortunate for your daughter

 

[ChisJo]

A restaurant I used to work at would give you the option of scrubbing walls, etc if it was dead and letting you stay to get your hours or giving you the option to leave early instead. Most young people chose to leave becuase they didn't want to do the "dirty" work.

Not sure how legal this was though but that was their excuse.

Yep - thats what the restaurant I used to work in did. However, they also did many many many other things that were completely against the labour laws in our province. I worked in restaurants for 12 years (started when I was 16...worked my way through University), and I can guarantee that the no restaurant will pay those 3 hours of pay unless you actually work them. What 18 year is old is going to want to scrub floors, or take gum from the bottom of the tables, etc, etc, or go home? We also never got breaks, and we had to pay for our uniforms (did you know that if you are making minimum wage, they cannot deduct a uniform off of your paycheck, because then you are essentially making less then min. wage?? - I didn't know that!).

I started to become really educated in labour laws while I was working my last long term restaurant job as they were questionable in their ethics, so to speak. As I was becoming more educated, I also educating others. This was considered a threat to management, and they didn't like that. Needless to say, I got fired, after working their for 5 years. They had NOTHING, no grounds, to fire me. There was not ONE complaint in my file, I was never short in the bar till, I never wasted liquor, I was never short on my counts, nothing. However, being up on the labour laws helped me with this situation. I asked for my severance pay, he said I wasn't entitled to it as they had just cause to let me go. I told him "ah...no, I will be taking this to the labour board." Honestly, my severance pay would have been no more than $500. I was at that point just trying to get under his skin, but he freaked out when I brought up the labour board. Funny thing happened when I brought my case to the labour board...this restaurant got audited. They ended up finding a bunch of problems with them....skimping hours off of peoples cheques, no OT paid when entitled, etc, etc. I ended up getting a cheque for $1250 due to their investigation, and the restaurant was then flagged by the labour board.

If they would've just paid me my severance pay, none of that would've happened.

Truthfully, I didn't even care that I get fired anyways as I was so close to finishing school, and I was going to quit in a couple of months anyways.

I think restaurants owners are just a dishonest group of people. I know they are not all like that....maybe its just the large chains, only out for themselves, and just not giving a care about the staff. I worked in so many and they were all the same. Every now and then I think it would be nice to go back one night a week bartending, because it is fun, but then I think about all the crap that goes along with it, and I think....no way.