Have you noticed that it's always the other chap who gets away with it and you don't? He drives through a speed camera at 60mph and you toddle along behind and it zaps you. He puts up a huge sign and no one cares. You put out an A-board and the planning enforcement officer is round the same afternoon!
My postbag seems to bulge with these anecdotes. But one recently caught my eye about part-time workers, and it applies to a great many pubs, I am sure.
Technically, part-timers no longer exist. Back in 2000, the Government issued regulations to prevent "less-favourable treatment" of part-time workers. Basically, it confirmed the fact that they have all the rights of full-timers, including the right to be paid the same rate as regular employees doing the same work, plus holiday and maternity rights as well.
But what about people who have a full-time job, but work in the pub some evenings. Are they entitled to holiday pay? Some pubs and clubs round here pay it, and some don't.
Well, the ones that don't may soon get a visit from the inspector, as graphically detailed recently on the front page of this newspaper. Periodically, the licensed trade gets targeted, because it is known as a business sector where there is a lot of casual employment. The trawl will reveal that according to the regulations, you owe rather a lot of money in PAYE and National Insurance, going back several years.
I agree that much of the evidence is winkled out by the inspector asking the licensee simple on-the-spot questions and he unwittingly lands himself in the soup by confessing to things he does not realise are illegal.
You must treat part-timers in exactly the same way, pro rata, as anyone else on the payroll. Clearly they will not earn as much overall, but their rate must be consistent. They are not entitled to as much holiday, but they are entitled to it. They are also allowed all the disciplinary and grievance procedures that anyone would get - and time off by agreement for special circumstances.
Of course, the man round the corner gets away with it. He always will. But you won't!