Whats our legal position: UK employment question?

My partner's boss is driving me mad!

He works Mon-Fri and I work Saturday and Sunday - we have an 18 month old son and no family who can provide childcare (my mum is 72 and has just undergone a major op, my partner's family live 250 miles away) so this suits us well.

It is in his contract that my partner does work occasional Saturdays and in that case we need a little notice so I can arrange a day off or maybe see if a friend can take our son for the day.

However, for about the fifth in a row, this woman has just "demanded", at 3.30pm on a Friday afternoon, that she's "needs" my partner "in tommorrow". We have no way to arrange childcare at such short notice (as I've said, family can't help).

Whats our position? He's scared he'll be sacked or get into trouble if he doesn't do it, he's tried to explain to her that he needs a day or so's notice to arrange childcare if they want him in on a Saturday but the silly woman won't listen and is just being unpleasant about it now . . .

If the wording of your partner's contract refers to 'occasional' Saturdays, I'd say that his employer is completely in the wrong. The short notice given compounds the problem.
He needs to put his position in writing, laying out the current situation, and what he considers reasonable notice & frequency of weekend working.
See what happens from there.
I wouldn't worry about him being sacked, it would be completely unreasonable & leave his employer wide open to an employment tribunal.
You need to start the dialogue immediately, and it MUST be done in writing, so if there is ever an escalation, you have your evidence to fall back on.
Good luck.

Yes:
HUMAN Resources departments are useless...

CHECK your Labour Laws... IT cannot be as bad as the USA.

No One can be sacked here except for the "BEST".

Try a legal counsellor. IT is Europe after all.

I dont think its unreasonable to ask tobe told by say 10 30 on a Friday He not in Scotland is he? different laws
Get advice from the CAB or your local MP

Try this site - bit busy at the moment to check it out.

If it's in his contract he will be expected to work occasional Saturdays, five in a row is hardly occasional. He can either argue the point and risk losing the job or you try and find childcare. Whilst she's not being either fair or considerate, it's going to be hard to refuse. Is there an alternative? Could he maybe offer to work late tonight instead? Or Monday evening? Maybe he needs to offer an alternative and remind her he needs notice to arrange childcare. Legally I think you'd have a hard job arguing the point.

If it's in his contract that you both need a little bit of notice to arrange childcare, then that's what they should be doing. Get your partner to talk to his boss and tell her this. She isn't abiding by what it says in his contract and he shouldn't get sacked or in trouble for pulling her up on it.

He would be in the right for saying something and hopefully would stop her from doing this in the future.

You could possibly try speaking to Citizens Advice and see what they suggest, as they would probably be the best people to advise you as what to do.

Other replies are right - five in a row is not 'occasional'.
Does your husband have a trade union rep that he can speak to about it? If not, he needs to join an appropriate union asap (depending on what job he's in try Unison or TGW).
This is a pretty bad thing for the boss to be doing and she should try to take your personal circumstances into account, especially if there is childcare involved.
The government is getting really hot on making companies give more leeway to working parents and this woman is at the very least guilty of very poor working practices.
Try Citizens Advice and any other advice you've had on here.
If all else fails, write her a letter informing her that from such a date your husband will only work Saturdays when given x days notice and explain why. Make sure you give the boss at least a months notice of when this will start from. If the boss refuses this, I'd say you have reasonable grounds for a constructive dismissal claim, i.e. she has made it impossible for him to continue to work there due to her attitude toward him.