My son (age 19) works full-time in a clothes shop, the local branch of a national chain. His hours are between 35 – 40 per week. His pay slip for last week showed only 35 hours, although he had actually worked 38 hours. He queried this with his manager, who told him he had reduced his pay by 3 hours because he did not think he had worked hard enough.

I understand the same happened to three other staff.

This is clearly case of bad management (even if the accusation was true), but is this lawful? And could it be construed as an attempt to force my son to leave? And if he did leave, might that be construed as constructive dismissal?

Steve Short
Steve Short