Before the first shift 09:00 what you should know
If you want shifts.
Temporary work is worth taking when you know what the shift is, what you will be paid for it and when the next rest is due — and not worth taking when any of those three arrive after you have already said yes. This page is the order we do them in, and what you are entitled to at each point.
Wed 09:00
Getting set up with us
first
Being set up takes one sitting and has to happen before any shift can be offered, not during the drive to one. The bulk of it is proving you are allowed to work in the UK: we check that from original documents or a Home Office share code, and we do it for everybody.
Nothing on that list costs you anything. We are not permitted to charge a work-seeker for finding them work, and we do not: no joining charge, no admission fee, no deduction for being put forward for a shift.
What we need to see
- Proof of your right to work — original, or a share code
- Name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number
- Bank details, so you can be paid through payroll
- Tickets, cards or certificates you hold, in date
- An emergency contact
- The days and shift patterns you will actually take
Wed 11:30
What you get before you say yes
in writing
Before you start with us you get your terms in writing, because the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 require it. They say whether we engage you under a contract of employment or a contract for services, what you will be paid and how it is worked out, when it is paid, what notice either side gives and what paid leave you get.
You also get a Key Information Document, which sets out those money facts on a single page, including anything that comes out of your pay before it reaches you. Read it before the first shift, not after the first payslip.
Then, for each shift
- Which site, which gate, and who to report to
- Start time, and the finish you should expect
- What the work involves, in plain words
- The rate for that assignment
- Tickets to carry, protective equipment to bring
Mon 05:40
The morning itself
on site
Aim to be at the gate a quarter of an hour early. That is enough to sign in, get the site induction and be at the work position when the shift starts rather than ten minutes into it, and on an unfamiliar site it is the difference between a calm start and a bad one.
If the job you are given is not the job you agreed to, ring us before you start it. You agreed to a described assignment; being moved onto something else needs your agreement, and sometimes a ticket you may not hold. Nobody at MTEK People will think less of you for refusing to operate equipment you have never been trained on — that call is the right one, and we will deal with the site.
Tue 06:00
Your rest, and your hours
WTR 1998
The Working Time Regulations 1998 give you a break inside a long shift, clear hours before the next one and a ceiling on the average week. You can put any pattern you are offered through the rest-break checker and see the three figures for yourself.
The forty-eight hour average is the one that gets misunderstood. You may agree in writing to work above it, that agreement has to be yours rather than a condition of getting shifts, and you can withdraw it later by giving notice. Nobody has to sign it to be offered work by us.
One day, drawn out
Thu 15:10
Hours, pay and paid leave
signed off
The hours you worked are confirmed by the site at the end of the week, and if what they confirm is not what you worked, tell us straight away — a shift that ran on past the booked finish is normal, and it has to be in the figures before anything is processed.
Pay runs through our payroll under PAYE, with tax and National Insurance deducted at source and a payslip each time. Paid annual leave follows the statutory entitlement of 5.6 weeks a year, in proportion to the hours you actually work; how it accrues and how you take it is written into your terms.
Things that are never true here
- A charge to you for finding you work
- A condition that you use some other paid service
- A deduction nobody told you about in writing
- A rate that first appears on the payslip
- Pressure to sign away the forty-eight hour average
Fri 17:00
If a shift went wrong
tell us
Write to shifts@mtekpeople.live and say which site, which day and what happened. Hours that were not counted, a break that never came, a gate that was not expecting you, equipment you were asked to use without training: all of it is worth telling us, and the sooner the better, because the hours and the confirmations are still to hand.
We will say what we are doing about it and we will tell you what we find, including when the answer is not the one you wanted. What we will not do is quietly stop offering you shifts for having raised something. If a question turns out to need legal advice rather than ours, we will say so plainly rather than guess at it.