Trial shifts: where you actually stand

A trial shift is a genuinely sensible idea. References and a profile tell an employer what somebody has done; an hour on the section tells them how that person behaves at eight o'clock on a Friday. Plenty of good chefs have been hired on a trial after a poor interview.

It is also the part of hospitality hiring most often used to get an evening of free labour, and the line between the two is worth knowing before you agree to one.

What tends to make the difference

There is no single hour count in law that turns a trial into work. The question is broadly whether what you did was a genuine part of assessing you for a real job, or whether it was simply work the business needed doing. Things that push it towards the second:

• The trial runs a full service, or a full shift, rather than a short period.
• You are covering a gap on the rota rather than shadowing somebody.
• Your output goes to paying customers as a matter of course.
• There is no real vacancy, or trials keep happening and nobody is ever hired.
• You are asked to do several trials, or the trial keeps being extended.

The National Minimum Wage rules are where this actually gets decided, and gov.uk publishes guidance specifically on unpaid work trials.

The government's guidance on work trials and when they must be paid: work experience and internships (gov.uk)

How to agree one properly

1. 1Get the length in writing before the day. “A couple of hours” has a way of becoming a service.
2. 2Ask whether it is paid, and if not, why not. A venue with a clear answer usually has a clear policy.
3. 3Ask what they are assessing. A trial with a purpose has one; a trial without a purpose is a shift.
4. 4Ask who you will be working alongside. Shadowing a section head is assessment. Running the section alone is covering it.
5. 5Agree when you will hear back, before you leave.

None of this is adversarial. Most venues asking for a trial are hiring in good faith and will answer all five without blinking. The point of asking is that the ones who will not are identifiable in advance, which is much cheaper than finding out afterwards.

On this site

A job advertised on Covers has to say whether its trial shift is paid or unpaid, and an unpaid one is flagged on the listing rather than discovered later. That does not make unpaid trials wrong — a short shadowing hour is reasonable and common — but it does mean you find out while you are still deciding whether to apply.

General information, not legal advice. If you have worked a trial you believe should have been paid, Acas can advise and the gov.uk guidance above sets out the obligations.