Can My Employer Count Some Of My Hours As Unpaid?

jsc2301

Hi all.

I am an employee for a company and am on a salary. I drive around the country visiting several sites a day so my hours can vary from 5 to 12 hours a day - depending on what I'm doing and how far it is etc. I get paid overtime on the basis that if all my hours for the week exceed 40, I get paid for those hours over 40 at an hourly rate. I still get my base pay if I do not reach 40 hours in the week.

However, my issue is that if I make a mistake such as forgetting to return keys to the site, or forgetting to take something from site, I am expected to correct the mistake unpaid. Is this normal practice or is this illegal? For example, today I drove to my first site, but discovered that I had visited a site that was supposed to be done tomorrow. I still did the work however, and then drove to today's first site to continue my day as I would have done. But my manager told me that I would have to take the first two hours (the difference in time of travelling between the sites) unpaid, as it was my mistake.

Just not sure on the legalities surrounding this issue so if someone better informed than I could help me out, that would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

agrinnall

Well, not paying you seems a bit dubious, but I have to say that all of the scenarios you mention seem to be entirely within your control to get right so that the situation should never arise. Perhaps taking a bit more responsibility for your actions would be a good starting point.

TELLIT01

You've made a mistake of some sort which may have cost your company money or professional reputation. You have also made an utterly pointless journey. Why should you be paid for that?
Talking specifically to the errors you refer to - you have either failed to take or return items but you expect the company to pay you for screwing up? Get real and count yourself fortunate that you haven't already been put on a disciplinary of some kind.
What a great way of getting overtime and extra money - **** up in normal time and then get paid overtime to put it right!!!!

jsc2301

Perhaps I should mention I'm a trainee at this point. I also work on my own so occasionally I do slip up. I understand it may cost the company money, but it just seemed odd to not be paid for hours of work.

marliepanda

jsc2301 wrote: »

Perhaps I should mention I'm a trainee at this point. I also work on my own so occasionally I do slip up. I understand it may cost the company money, but it just seemed odd to not be paid for hours of work.

Perhaps a little leeway is required but these are fairly simple things you are doing wrong, aka going to the wrong place and not putting things away like keys, not actual things you need to be trained on.

If I take the wrong turning to work and get there 30 mins late, should I be paid for those 30 mins? No.

You're not working, you're correcting mistakes. That's not really work.

stator

I'm not employment expert but they should probably pay you and then deduct money from your wages. I don't think there's any 'screw up' exception to the minimum wage laws. But if your employment contract allows it they can probably make certain deductions.

TELLIT01

stator wrote: »

I'm not employment expert but they should probably pay you .....

So the OP takes a set of keys home with him which should have been left at work. He then has to make a journey to put them back where they should already be. You think he should be paid to do that???

stator

Travelling to and from your normal place of work isn't paid

getmore4less

Are they actually deducting from your salary if this free time take you under your 40 or just not paying the overtime these hours would accrue.

jobbingmusician

Whilst agreeing the OP shouldn't be paid for correcting mistakes, if I have read this correctly s/he did some work yesterday which actually should have been done today. I assume this work doesn't have to be done again today - if so, obviously they should be paid for doing this work. (Mileage or travel time allowance may however be different if s/he's incurred extra mileage/tt by the mistake.)

MacMickster

As an employee, working time is the time spent doing the work that your employer has directed you to do.

Travelling to and from a site that your employer hasn't told you to go to, or returning keys that your employer hasn't told you to take home with you isn't working time.

As has already been pointed out, your employer has already ben pretty good to you (maybe giving you some leeway as you are a trainee) by not going down the disciplinary route in respect of these mistakes. I strongly suggest that you do your darndest to prevent similar mistakes in the future, and don't test your employer's goodwill to the limit by trying to claim overtime for doing things that they very specifically don't want you to do.