Shift Allowance vs Overtime

Lil306

Hi All,

Not normally here so excuse if wrong section

I'm expecting to have trouble with my employer with regards to my pay. I am currently on a 13 week contract which will be perm if successful.

The job was advertised as working 3 shifts (e.g 3-11, 7-3, 11-7) with a shift allowance. The job itself is a standard 40 hour week with 2.5hrs for 30 mins lunch break per day

If I work on weekends, or above my normal hours. Can the employer put this down as shift allowance?

As far as I'm concerned, it's out of my normal working hours so should be classed as overtime. However I suspect they will try and play it out as shift to pay me less than my overtime rate

Is this against any laws, or are they in any position to do this to me?

I'm not overly concerned if it's not against the law, it's just simply a case of I'll refuse to work any additional hours they want coverage for

Thanks

liney

Are you askng if they have to pay you additional money at all, or are you asking if they should remove your shift allowance before calculating the overtime rate?

Lil306

liney wrote: »

Are you askng if they have to pay you additional money at all, or are you asking if they should remove your shift allowance before calculating the overtime rate?

No sorry,

Say my normal week is 37.5hrs, and for argument sake I worked an additional 20 hours on top of that because they asked if I would be willing to provide additional coverage because they needed it

Are the company legally oblidged to pay this as overtime rate since it's outside of my "normal" 37.5hr week, or can they dodge it saying it's classed as shift allowance?

DVardysShadow

Shift allowance covers a multitude of evils.

• An hourly premium when you are working non normal hours
• An hourly premium when you are working any part of a shift pattern and not an office hours pattern
• A [possibly invisible] amount included in basic salary for working shifts, but removed when you are on leave or sick

You cannot really begin to answer your question until you understand what your shift allowance is and how overtime is calculated in your workplace.

clb776

Most companys don't pay extra for overtime now (especially for new staff), its just the standard hourly rate, does your employer?

During previous employment I used to work shifts and got a hefty shift allowance plus time and a half for overtime (this were hours I did outside my shifts, even if we started one hour before) or double time on bank holidays etc.

Sambucus_Nigra

What does your contract say about shift allowance and how it is applied?

getmore4less

What did you agree with the employer?

There is no law that says you have to even be paid for the extra hours.

The only law that counts on payments is min wage across all the hours you work..

Lil306

DVardysShadow wrote: »

Shift allowance covers a multitude of evils.

* An hourly premium when you are working non normal hours
* An hourly premium when you are working any part of a shift pattern and not an office hours pattern
* A [possibly invisible] amount included in basic salary for working shifts, but removed when you are on leave or sick

You cannot really begin to answer your question until you understand what your shift allowance is and how overtime is calculated in your workplace.

Darn. From what I understand my the wage I'm getting for my normal hourly rate is the shift allowance + wage. The employer apparently were that impressed with me they didn't want to give me just the basic pay and shift allowance when I do it, they wanted my hourly rate to be that of wage + allowance. Works out to about £9.60 per hr

clb776 wrote: »

Most companys don't pay extra for overtime now (especially for new staff), its just the standard hourly rate, does your employer?

During previous employment I used to work shifts and got a hefty shift allowance plus time and a half for overtime (this were hours I did outside my shifts, even if we started one hour before) or double time on bank holidays etc.

Yeah, unfortunately I haven't got a timesheet yet so can't confirm. Should be tomorrow then I can start hassling them

Sambucus_Nigra wrote: »

What does your contract say about shift allowance and how it is applied?

I'm an agency worker

getmore4less wrote: »

What did you agree with the employer?

There is no law that says you have to even be paid for the extra hours.

The only law that counts on payments is min wage across all the hours you work..

No agreement was made, since I came through an agency. The extra hours are production hours. If they still want me to help provide coverage outside of my normal 37.5hr week they WILL pay me otherwise they won't have me covering them. I've already told them that . Since the job itself is advertised as a 37.5hr week, and they run "overtime" on Saturdays, they can't argue the fact that I'm not doing the job because it's outside of my normal working week. So it's completely voluntary. So it's up to me to choose if I work those hours or not, and if they refuse to pay me I'll refuse to help them

Fingers crossed I get my true payslip tomorrow, so I'll be able to see exactly what they're paying me. I've worked to the equivalent of £2500 pre tax so far, but my agency are really bad and I gonna lose a stink of it in tax

getmore4less

No agreement was made, since I came through an agency.

So took a position with no idea how much you will get paid.

God idea to get details of the pay structure how it will get paid and when.

Especialy if there are different rates for different hours and paid overtme.

eg : If time sheeted when is the cutoff date for the next pay cycle.

Lil306

getmore4less wrote: »

So took a position with no idea how much you will get paid.

God idea to get details of the pay structure how it will get paid and when.

Especialy if there are different rates for different hours and paid overtme.

eg : If time sheeted when is the cutoff date for the next pay cycle.

I knew what the wage was, just not the actual rates of pay etc. The basic wage in the postion is about £17500 per year, plus shift allowance.

I was called from my agency contact, the job was something around £8.50 an hour, they wanted to pay me the shift allowance on top of that as part of my hourly rate so my actual rate is £9.60 and the agency confirmed this.

I'm paid weekly, (it was requested by client) however the agency keeps messing up with my pay so I'm having to wait lol

SarEl

Lil306 wrote: »

So it's completely voluntary. So it's up to me to choose if I work those hours or not, and if they refuse to pay me I'll refuse to help them

Absolutely true. Of course, since (a) you are an agency worker and not an employee and (b) they do not have to take you on at all and (c) if they do take you on you will have no employment protection for another 12 montsh after that - it's also entirely voluntary on their part if they want to employ you or not