My son is home from uni and is looking for job. He was interviewed by the manager of a local pub and told he had passed the interview but had to do a trial shift unpaid. So son went along and worked his socks off. At the end of the shift they said he had done well and would call if they wanted him back. Is this legal? Seems pub has got free labour? Trading standards?

Not unlike internship. Only illegal if they’d misled him. They were upfront & he agreed to it. Pretty much how zero hour contracts work. Tory britain innit

Legally speaking I have no clue but I guess if unpaid internships are permissable than one shift in pub will be too. Both are however taking the piss.

So Theresa May has a pub now? Who knew.. 😆

I’m not sure of the legality (I could convince myself either way). However we have used short trial periods with staff (for permanent full time roles). ~ 3 hrs we don’t pay for, its the final stage of the interview process when we have one preferred candidate but there is some specific technical ability or interaction we want to explore in the real world. Full days (or multiple days) we pay for, however they can be equally frustrating as trials are a two way thing, take up other staff time and bring us zero direct value and at the end the candidate can turn round and say “no its not what I’m looking for”.

Do you really think the pub got free labour on shift 1 though? I’m not saying he didn’t do anything useful, but presumably someone had to show him how to use the till, possibly how to pour the pints, where the various drinks, glasses are, how to work the glass washer, ice machine etc. If he gets a call in a week or two to say “can you do some paid work” then he’ll probably be quite content to have shown his work ethic etc. If he never gets a call then perhaps they were letting him down gently (or just too soft to say “if you want to work here you need to put more effort in, and spend less time chatting up the punters”).

That’s just it, no-one trained him. He was just tasked with taking food to tables. As far as I can see it was free labour, and he was effective ( so he tells me anyway!)

If it were me I would be getting a table booked for a big group meal and doing a runner when the bill came. A days work for no pay is beyond taking the piss.

This is pretty much how most of the service industry works, and it’s not likely to change under this government.

It’s part and parcel of our low end insecure working, and it’s the sort of thing that most people caught up in get very angry about, but noone ever cares enough to do something about these abuses.

OP, the main point of this sot of shift is to see if the potential employee is actually a worker or not. If your son passed this test there’s probably some hours, but it sounds like he’s gone on a list of people to call if it gets busier than expected.

I did unpaid shifts when I worked in pubs and restaurants 20 years ago.

social job, free booze, free food and lots of lovely waitresses.

ahhhh, the memories.

Don’t seem right but I’ve heard of this before. Only in the independent pubs not the chains. In their head he was probably supernumerary on his trial and they didn’t want to up their wage bill for the night.

Interesting to know where he would have stood if he had an accident or injured a customer.

hIf he gets a call in a week or two

They would be too late. When hiring casual staff you can’t wait around for 1 -2 weeks.

The attitude from the pub would make me think it was not a great place to work

ahhhh, the memories. mammaries.

FTFY

Normally its a bit if cash in hand. unless it was a convenient location or the only pub in town I don’t think I’d be too keen to go back.

if it were my son I’d be going down there to have a word with the manager.

I don’t think I’d be happy with that – if they wanted me to do one, paid shift on the understanding that it’s a trail and no further work may be forthcoming, fair enough. Unpaid? That takes the pish somewhat.

I wouldn’t be happy, but he’s an adult and agreed the terms up front so he’ll have to chalk it up to experience.

Never miss an excuse to moan about the Tories I see. I’d say an unlimited supply of cheap enthusiastic labour willing to work for low wages in the service sector would have more of an impact.

OP as per the first response, he agreed to the trial shift or if you like an “on the job interview / assesment”. You don’t get paid for attending an interview. Once he has more bar work experience he will be able to decline such requests in the future if he chooses

Never miss an excuse to moan about the Tories I see. I’d say an unlimited supply of cheap enthusiastic labour willing to work for low wages in the service sector would have more of an impact.

Never miss an excuse to moan about being in the EU. This is an employees rights question and the tories are simply the least caring about them, as I am sure you will agree.

as I am sure you will agree.

😯

I think for this one it depends on the intent of the landlord,if the landlord never intended to give him a job and just needed him to get over a busy night,then its out of order, but if it was a genuine trial and your son didnt ‘pass’ then its fair enough.

Youll never know the genuine intent though,so just put this one down to experience.

You could play them at their own game and if they do call him back for more shifts ,tell them he wants more money orhes not doing it

Seems fine to me, he was told upfront what the deal was and agreed to it. The only thing that would be shady is if he was working under the assumption it was trialing for a full time job and instead they just wanted to build up a list of zero hour workers to cover illness/busy times (but it’s not clear whether this is the case or not from what the OP has written).

Seems fine to me, he was told upfront what the deal was and agreed to it.

Was he told upfront that he only mightget a call back for work if he did a good job?

You’d have hoped the manager might have said: “you did a good job, here’s £20 and come back tomorrow lunchtime”.

Funny, local pub revamped looking for help. Mate’s son applied – started with 3 days training with full pay.

Unpaid internship just seems rubbish, speaks volumes about the employer.

I did this when I was a student. Free night working at O’Neills, didn’t particularly like it there and they didn’t ask me back. Kept the T shirt

New one on me. When I wanted a pub Jon I popped into one of the local pubs with a cv and asked if they needed any staff. Had a 20 min chat with the owner and he said yes let’s give it a go. Had a trial evening working behind the bar fully paid then they said I had a job.

In this case they have told him their plan up front so not much he can say or do about it – except chase them to ask if they will actually be giving him a job. He should get told quickly given he’s out himself out to do an unpaid trial.

Personally I wouldn’t have done an unpaid trial for a pub job. There’s enough pub jobs to go round that I’d have gone and looked for a different one.

sounds to me like an ideal introduction to the real world after university- work hard, get sweet FA. Tell him to stop being a pussy and look forward to the next 50 yrs. Its some shitty pub job, keep it in perspective before ringing up Strasbourg ffs.

Did he at least get a share of the tips?

my daughter did a trial shift at local hotel, worked hard as far as I can tell, at least she got minimum wage for the shift – much the same, as a trial, they were very short staffed too. she came home a bit pissed off as the hours was rounded down. when they called the next day to ask her to “come in” she was all set to tell them too, then they completed the sentence “to collect your share of the tips” which worked out quite well!

She has not been asked back though, and they were quite unhelpful..

Sounds ok as it was stated in advance. Clearly they are enjoying the free labour. I’d contact them and as for feedback as to why he wasn’t contacted afterwards though.

Personally I’ve only ever worked a bar for free at a beer festival. I’d offer the manager a challenge, whoever takes most money behind the bar gets ALL the pay!

I’d contact them and as for feedback as to why he wasn’t contacted afterwards though.

Give them a chance – the trial could have been yesterday from what the OP wrote.

i went for a marketing job once and was asked to write the copy for a brochure for them, unpaid and at interview stage. i told them to stuff it.

I did the same when I was at uni.
Worked my arse off on a Saturday shift running the food out and clearing up for about 8hrs. They were upfront and said it was a trial with no pay. At the end I was told they liked me and would give me a call. I got a call the next day and offered a full time job for the summer (sadly broke my elbow the same day so couldn’t do it 😥 ).

Bin there, done that. Was all up front so I could always have told them to jog on. Had I not been successful I’d have asked for written feedback

I also had it agreed that if I was successful in my application/trail my start date would be from the date of the trial, so I got paid for it in the end.

Might be different for PT/seasonal work

I’d be looking for a different pub to work in.

if it were my son I’d be going down there to have a word with the manager.

Sounds like a handy way of ensuring he never gets asked back.

IMO that’s a pretty underhand approach to recruitment for a pub, I wouldn’t trust the landlord to be honest.

Would your son not be better off going to a temp agency and finding work that way? At least he’ll be paid.

Not underhand at all. And nothing new. When I was nearing leaving school back in the day there were millions of people unemployed and the prospects for young people were far, far worse and more bleak than today’s youth. I did loads of free work just to get experience and break through the ‘cant get a job because you’ve no experience, can’t get any experience because you can’t get a job’ paradox. So I signed up for free work all over the place in many different areas of work. And it all paid off because I applied for 10 apprenticeships and got 10 offers, so sometimes you’ve got to play the long game.

Similarly on zero hours contracts, I effectively worked zero hours contracts, just by a different name, when at uni during holiday’s, so nothing new there. Was a great arrangement, no commitment on either side so if I didn’t want to work one day I didn’t have to. Was perfect for the situation I was in in life at that time. Not perfect for everyone, but good for some.

I’d advise to do the shift, give it your best, make a good impression and then earn the job at the end of it. It’s a competition at the end of the day, not an entitlement.

I was once offered a job (graphic designer as a graduate) and between getting the offer and the start date they called saying they had some work and could I help them out, to which I duly obliged as I wanted to show willing. This meant my going out to buy marker pens/pads etc to do the work then driving it over to them to hand over. The next day I got a call saying my work wasn’t up to scratch and they were withdrawing the offer. I sent them a bill and after a few threats of legal action they finally paid me.

I subsequently found out they had been doing the same for months and months, getting job after job done for free by desperate graduates wanting to impress. Asshats.

Free shift for pub work? They are having a giraffe!