Employers unpaid hours

sHAYM4N · 4 May 2012 at 11:10PM

Hi all, hoping there will be someone with a bit of legal knowledge that could help with an issue in our department.

I work in security for a pretty well known university. When I started employment here we worked 12 hour shifts and were paid for 11 hours. Initially when restructured to 12 hours (before I started) the reasoning was that we would have a one hour unpaid meal break.

In practice we only ever had half an hour, management said they couldnt afford for us to be off shift for an hour, but payment was never changed to reflect this. Time went on, and another restructure put us on 8 hour shifts. We have put in a claim with HR to reclaim the half hours over 3 years (including overtime) which totals around £3,500.

We have now been told that the claim can not be pursued as their is no paper trail or evidence to show that we were working 12 hour shifts (despite it being a 12 hour roster). Breaks are not detailed in the contract of employment either. I've provided wage slips, and paperwork detailing that we were working 12 hour shifts with half an hour break and wage slips which show we were getting paid for 11 hours.

Also isn't there legislation in place for meal breaks that over a certain period a paid break of 20 minutes must be given? Seems wrong we were working 11-1/2 hours sometimes 12 yet only being paid for 12?

The union in place here is a waste of space as the reps work here, and are in positions close to management, so it's a conflict of interest. Not sure what the next step is? Citizens Advice or Solicitors, or should it just be dropped?

They've also offered VR university wide 50% salary which I have applied for, but now after receiving an estimate, we've been told that no-one will be let go out our department. Trapped :mad: