Cutting overtime. Would you say anything?

BarrelScraper

Before i progress, from reading this forum i am aware:

* I'm aware employers can do whatever they wish, just shy of actually killing you
* Life isn't fair
* The only one on this forum who knows how my employers operates is me.

I'm not wanting analysis of blacks & whites though.

In recent years (although not EVERY year), we have had our overtime cut in the winter months. At one point we were guaranteed 40 hours, but they brought in a change a while ago (years) where they could no longer guarantee this figure - at any week of the year.

This has always been done pretty fairly - some times management have even got involved & drawn up a rota system whereby at the end of the week, everyone was pretty much in line with each other for total hours worked.


* Key to this (for me) is information being relayed via our supervisor. Not only that, but our supervisor is well known for making things up - putting peoples names on jobs (so & so said you've got to do this, but when you dig a bit deeper, you find out so & so knows nothing about it & supervisor just didn't want to say that the order came from themselves). I have caught supervisor out numerous times doing this to myself, others & supervisor has admitted doing it to one person.

Slightly off topic - was when the supervisor said i had to stay late one night, which resulted in our weekend away being ruined. The general manager apparently said i had to. When i enquired a few weeks later asking why this was required, the general manager told me that they couldn't have given that order - as they were away on holiday!!




On to the current facts:

Last week i was set to work the weekend rota. As a result of this the supervisor sent me home early on 2 days. They weren't working the weekend & only lost 1 half day unlike my 2 halves. Others lost time too. The other person working weekend lost 2 halves just like i did.

There's a chap who works some days in our department, who our supervisor doesn't like. This chap was supposed to be off work at the weekend, but flipped a coin with another lad & ended up working.
My supervisor found out on Monday & went complaining to HR saying that this chap is a grabber & keeps trying to avoid being sent home. Bear that in mind.


We are set to work 2 out of 3 weekends. This weekend WAS my weekend to work. The supervisor was rota'd for 2 in a row OFF somehow & went complaining that he can't afford this. When the official rota came through to us underlings, i was now OFF work & supervisor was working.

Supervisor has already taken a half day this week but isn't taking any other half days (bit of a difference from last week when the weekend workers had to lose 2 halves).
I am not set to work the weekend & i've been told that i will still lose a half.

All in all, supervisor will probably drop to about 52 hours, whereas if/when i get sent i will be on 42. Big difference. Others who have already been sent are already in a position where the max they can get now is about 42, so they're in the same boat as me.



* I understand the requirements for chopping hours. This person is complaining about others yet doing the exact same themselves though. Not to mention that i don't believe/trust them when they say >I< HAVE to go.

I was debating with myself about having a word with HR. This will upset my supervisor (i'm not too fussed about, as when supervisor comes off short, they don't care about capping everyone else). If it's the way to be then it's the way to be, but if not then i'd like it fair.


What would you do? Serious comments only please.

silkyuk9

I think overtime is a privilege if you can get it especially if its time half or double pay etc. If over time is cancelled what can you do? Generally managers will tinker with the rota and shuffle people around even if that means 1 person doing a 2 man job (Obviously safety taken into account when I say 2 persons) I work for the NHS and had 1 days over time in 10 years. I don't think you can do anything about it to be honest, if you are getting paid your contractual hours that's it. If your contract states you are going to get a set amount of extra hours per month then there maybe the 30 or 90 day rule, or custom and practice.

In my opinion if overtime is cancelled then that's that, what can you do?

BarrelScraper

silkyuk9 wrote: »

I think overtime is a privilege if you can get it especially if its time half or double pay etc. If over time is cancelled what can you do? Generally managers will tinker with the rota and shuffle people around even if that means 1 person doing a 2 man job (Obviously safety taken into account when I say 2 persons) I work for the NHS and had 1 days over time in 10 years. I don't think you can do anything about it to be honest, if you are getting paid your contractual hours that's it. If your contract states you are going to get a set amount of extra hours per month then there maybe the 30 or 90 day rule, or custom and practice.

In my opinion if overtime is cancelled then that's that, what can you do?

I understand what you're saying. I don't think overtime at my place is like most places though from reading into things on here.

Other places you seem to have a choice. At our place it's expected & if you don't do then you get warnings. If we work our "normal" hours then that puts us nearly 50 hours without a weekend & mid 50s with a weekend. OVertime is paid after 40 hours, although not at time & a half. I'm not sure what the fraction is, but at any rate, it's not even an extra £1. With that said, every little counts.

As for "what can you do" - this goes back to what i said at the start, i know you can't "do" as in force, anything.

In the past they have always done it fairly. I may not have liked it, but it's been fair. So if 3 people in one department are being dropped to a set figure at the end of the week then the 4th person also gets dropped to that same figure.
With the way our supervisor seems to be managing it (sup' wasn't in control of it in the past) they are benefiting by 10 hours over us.

What can i "do"? Nothing other than bring it to their attention as they may not be aware (they generally don't care so long as the job gets done as cheap as possible).

What can "they" do? Make it fair. If we were all dropped to similar hours, i wouldn't like it, but it'd be fair & i wouldn't be here asking for impartial advice.

I don't remember the last week that i didn't do just 15 minutes overtime in the last 10 years. It's generally many hours.

ValHaller

BarrelScraper wrote: »

Before i progress, from reading this forum:

* I'm aware employers can do whatever they wish, just shy of actually killing you

Off topic, but if people mistake the drivel in the papers about misapplied Health and Safety as valid arguments against properly applied H&S, then we are in danger of H&S being deregulated.

And then employers really will be allowed to kill you.

ValHaller

BarrelScraper wrote: »

.... What would you do? Serious comments only please.

Sit quiet and join a union. Let the situation fester then get the union involved.

Basically my dislikes in increasing order of severity are

• overtime in the first place
• enforced overtime
• grabbing

I think that the argument you have to make is that if there is enforced overtime, it must be shared equally, you don't find it acceptable to have your overtime increased or decreased on the whim of another person grabbing or dumping. And you need to make the case that a person other than one of those doing the overtime should be the one who allocates the overtime hours.

ohreally

ValHaller wrote: »

Sit quiet and join a union. Let the situation fester then get the union involved.

I seem to recall the workplace is unionised and the op is a member. No steward on site and a reluctance to bring issues to TU attention.