I have been asked to stay hour longer after my shift finished... I refused.

Varin

I work in a restaurant. My contract states 8h a week as this is their "safety shield" in case if business is not busy and they have to ask me to work less hours.

First question here: Is anything over 8h considered overtime in this case? Do I understand this right?

It never happened though, we are a busy chain restaurant and I normally work around 37h per week. It is rota based, every week the pattern is different.

Today I am doing "split shift" so 12-15 and then 19-finish. At 14:30 my manager told me that I have to stay hour longer. I said that I can't, I have my commitments, I'm meeting someone at 15:30 for lunch. They weren't very happy... Relations between me and my manager aren't great, she said something like "You let me down two days in a row, so you have to do this for me now". She was referring to me having food poisoning and not being able to come to work couple days earlier...

Now. Could me refusing to do this extra hour be considered a gross misconduct? Is there any notice period that they have to give me when they ask me to stay longer?
Can they fire me?

SarEl

If you have more than 12 months service they cannot dismiss you for this (although I am sure they could find something else to dismiss you for - such employers always can). If you have less than 12 months they can fire you for walking on the grass.

But what they can do is take you off shift and only provide you with 8 hours work until such time as you can't afford to work there any longer - which given the wages you are likley to be receiving will probably be in a couple of weeks time. This isn't a "safety shield" - it's exploitation pure and simple.

andyf3050

Hi Varin,

Just a couple of things...

a) when you were off with food poisoning, did you receive any sick pay from your employer? If you didn't, then in theory you weren't letting anyone down... in fact, if you work in food sales you did the right thing by staying away...

and

b) if an employer requests that you work extra hours as overtime then they should really give you reasonable notice and not give you a hard time if they approach you at the end of your shift and ask you to stay late. If you have commitments, regardless of what they are (none of your employers business in all honesty) then you are within your right to refuse overtime without being given reasonable notice.

What Sarel said is true and if you haven't been there for 52 weeks or more then you're rights are quite limited.

Hope this helps...
Andy...;)

The_Pedant

a) when you were off with food poisoning, did you receive any sick pay from your employer? If you didn't, then in theory you weren't letting anyone down... in fact, if you work in food sales you did the right thing by staying away...

Just to elaborate on that, was the nature of your food poisoning one that would have required you by law to stay away from work?

The food standards agency states: “No person suffering from, or being a carrier of a disease likely to be transmitted through food or afflicted, for example, with infected wounds, skin infections, sores or diarrhoea is to be permitted to handle food or enter any food-handling area in any capacity if there is any likelihood of direct or indirect contamination.“
Breach of the obligations set out in this paragraph constitutes an
regulation 17 of the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006.

In which case you were far from 'letting them down', but were helping them possibly avoid legal implications.

Anyway, that aside .. is there anything in your contract about flexible working or additional hours? Mind you if you have been there less than 12 months, make note of what SarEl said

InsideInsurance

Even if someone isnt paid for sick leave doesnt mean that it doesnt cause problems for the manager/ company being one set of hands down than they had anticipated needing.

Whilst if the OP was genuinely sick it obviously is right that they stay away from work given their job however food poisoning, bad back, migraine and stress/ depression are typically not well received by managers as difficult to prove/ frequent to repeat etc and often considered in the same light as "my dog ate my homework" - it can happen but hasnt in the majority of cases.

As others have said, even without gross miss conduct they can drive you out if they want.