Toolsatan oddity

AFAIK they are not actually legal tender in England so it's entirely up to them.

I wonder if some banks actually charge to accept them.

It is also much more likely that staff who are unfamiliar with them, and quite likely don't have any others for comparison, could be taken in by even poor quality dodgy Scottish notes.

They aren't even legal tender in Scotland.

Went to Western Scotland this summer - made sure that I disn't bring any Scottish notes with me - just before I returned I asked for an English note in change - no problem

I think you may find that this link explains it.

AB

We got given a Scottish tenner as change last Wednesday at a B & Q. I hande d it over and asked for a "real one" instead. The guy on the 'till began to baulk, but when I explained, loudly, that it wasn't legal tender, that the re was no way either of us could know if it was a fake or not and, further, it was unlikely I'd be able to fob it off on anyone else, he caved. As I w alked away I heard the next mug/customer say, "And don't try giving it to m e either"

Talking of TS staff, the girl that served me recently looked really weird. This was before Halloween, but she looked like she'd dressed up well in advance. I was expecting the worst but she was super fast, polite, and extremely pleasant to deal with. Must control those prejudices of mine!

Do they have any full time sales staff. All sales assistant positions listed there are fore 20hrs per week or less. Is there some advantage to having more staff on less hours?

Not for the company, but if you work less than a certain number of hours a week, you become eligible for some benefits that are refused otherwise, so it can pay you more per week to work 19 hours than 25. When you're on the legal minimum wage as most shop workers are, this is important.

Yes - no employer's national insurance contributions to pay if they can kee p the weekly wage below £148. I think that's about a 13% saving to the em ployer.

It does mean that those workers aren't contributing to their state pension but that's their problem in the future, not the employers' problem now.

Working over 16 hours a week disqualifies eligibility for JSA or ESA, worki ng less than 30 hours a week usually disqualifies eligibility for working t ax credits. It's not a good deal for employees.

Owain

A business is not obliged to accept them in the England. AFAIK they are not actually obliged to in Scotland either.

They don't charge any more for accepting Scottish or Irish notes than they do for Bank of England notes.

It's an extention of zero hour contracts. Employ them for 20 hours, keep th em on when it's busy, send them home when it goes quiet.

It's the wonders of globalisation and immigration. Staff have become a comm odity.

I thought companies didn;t have top contribute to yuor pension scheme and t ehre were some other NI benifits for teh employer if they employed staff un der 20 hours per week, but maybe it's changed since the 90s.

but if you work less than a certain number of hours

No-one is obliged to accept them anywhere. Legally speaking, they aren't actually money. OTOH, I have never had trouble spending them and have no qualms about accepting them.

Or it's been so long since I had anything to do with the benefits system (Mid '80s?) that I've misremembered the details, which have likely changed anyway.

I'm happy with Scottish notes, but did make sure we got rid of the NI ones before we crossed back.

It means you have twice the staff so if one is off there is less disruption.