Employer taking away overtime rate.

Phil_rich

Evening all,

I am looking to find peoples experiences and thoughts on being asked to give up overtime rate pay.

Basically today my department were called in to a meeting and asked to sign new employment contracts which gives up overtime pay at 'time and a half, for any hours over 37.5'. We would be expected to work the same hours but 'all hours worked at basic rate'. Now for me personally on a like for like year I would be £4000 worse off.

This will not have an effect at the moment as we are on short time (4days) but will be effective once times are better and the economy recovers.

I dont think it is fair that we are being asked to give this up, but what do you think? Should we get a basic rate rise in return? What has happened to you?

Thanks,
Phil

terra_ferma

You'll find info on variations of contracts here:

http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=816

pinkshoes

I think you're lucky that they're offering you overtime at basic rate!! Many people are expected to work overtime to get the job done for no extra money whatsoever!!

I would go with it for now, then when things improve, ask the to return to time and a half. If they say no, then you could vote with your feet and all leave. A job offer from elsewhere often makes negotiation much easier!

Reds-on-Sea

You are lucky that you get paid for overtime at all, let alone X1.5.

If you're saying that you'll be £4K worse off by going from X1.5 to X1, then by my calculation, you are earning an extra £12K a year purely in overtime?

Either you're doing A LOT of overtime, or your hourly rate is very good indeed (in which case I'd guess you're in a highly skilled job and possibly in a position to look elsewhere)

I used to work somewhere that the staff relied on their overtime. I always made sure I didn't though. It's like counting your chickens before they'd hatched, they'd all spent their overtime pay before they'd even earned it, and were in a terrible mess when an overtime ban came into force.

I know it's not always possible, but maybe you should find somewhere that pays a salary that you are happy with, without having to rely on overtime.

What will they do if you don't sign anyways? Do you have any choice? Overtime isn't compulsory, and if nobody feels like working extra hours at single time is worth their while, then maybe they'll have to go back to offering X1.5 to get you to work?

3plus1

Personally, I'd be happy to get overtime at my basic rate, as at present, any overtime done by me is mandatory at busy times of year and always unpaid!

The real question is, if you refuse to sign this new contract, can the company just not offer you any overtime? I'm not quite sure I know the answer to that one myself, but it's something worth pondering.