I am a legal secretary in Sydney and I work at a small firm. There are 2 solicitors and 2 permanent staff, I’m the "secretary" and we usually have a slightly younger "reception" girl. Now the reception girl quit, and her last day was a Friday when i was on holidays. I came back the next monday, the same day that one of the solicitors took holidays for the whole month.
The solicitors had decided that they would not advertise or interview while one was away, which is fair enough, I understand that. So I worked by myself for 4 weeks which was very tiring and stressful.
Now the solicitor has returned from holidays and there has been no talk of advertising and interviewing. Its the 4th of November now which means it is nearly Christmas. I am concerned that they will want to do the advertising and interviews when we come back in January which I do not want.
I have worked in this firm for 6 years and this has happened before a few years ago. I had to work by myself, and I had a repetitive stress injury in my wrist and shoulder find it mentally exhaustive.
What I want to know is if I bring up with my employers the fact that I don’t want them to wait until after Christmas to get another staff member, do I have any rights, especially any legislation, that I can refer to to support my position?
I wouldn’t have any idea where to look to find out. I know I have a right not to be overworked, but they will not listen to my argument because they will beleive their plan is more convenient to them. I really want to be able to back up my argument with some evidence as to my rights.
Any chance someone has dealt with something like this before and knows what I can do?
Are you thinking about selling your home yourself? then
You should feel lucky that you are employed. Reminder: We are in a world-wide Recession. And the field of Law is in CRISIS!
Do the bare minimums of your job. When they mention that a lot of work is being left undone, suggest that they hire someone to do what the other girl used to do (since you haven’t been doing it!)
I have personally dealt with this before, put in the amount of work and hours you feel you are being payed.
Also: Pretty Shinny Things, people like you are why we can’t acquire the goal of World Peace and end Wars
You do not have a right when they will hire somebody. It is not your call. They can even decide to not hire anybody at all and work reception into your position if they wished to.
You have to be careful how you handle this at work.You do have rights but unfortunately in this case you don’t allow email.I have dealt with cases like this before I retired.I was very high up in the unions and negotiated settlement’s in cases like this.You may never join a union
but you should always be completely aware of what your rights and entitlements are.People will tell that you do not have a leg to stand on
but you do but tact is always essential do not complain or argue until you know your rights and until you know how to approach the issue.Email me and I will tell you where you can get that information
but please don’t push at work until you have the information,