Enforced overtime working

inglorius

I joined my present company about 9 months ago as a salaried supervisor, during the interview I was told that during the run up to Xmas then the company gets very busy and works additional hours to satisfy the company order book.

Last week I requested annual leave in November, I was told that there is a company ban on holiday being taken between November and December due to the seasonal uplift (there is nothing in my employment contract to state there is a ban on holidays during this period).

A few days later a shift rota was circulated detailing that from the start of November I was slated for working either a Saturday or Sunday a.m. or p.m. 8 hour shift for the 8 weeks preceding Xmas, again this is not stated in my employment contract merely I am supposed to work a reasonable amount of overtime when requested. I saw my Line Manager and told him that I regularly work 5-6 hours unpaid overtime a week and I would classify this as reasonable, not working 14 hours a week.

At the same time I asked about payment for this overtime, I was told that as I was a supervisor this would be expected to be included as a reasonable amount of unpaid overtime given the seasonal uplift period, but as a recognition the company would look at giving back a day in lieu for weekend worked (even though hourly paid staff on a Sunday for example would be paid double time plus a shift increment of 10% for working a p.m. shift).

I am not enamoured by the whole situation and quite frankly do not want to work any weekend overtime, please could you advise me of my employment rights,

TIA

theoretica

Does the overtime take you below minimum wage? If so you have a very strong case.

Could you drop all other overtime to reduce the total you are doing? Will they assign the days in lieu or can you choose when to take them?

kelpie35

Don't think you have any as only been in job for 9 months.

I think you need to be in a job 2 years to be able to have any rights.

If you are that unhappy with your present situation then I think you need to look elsewhere for employment.

inglorius

theoretica wrote: »

Does the overtime take you below minimum wage? If so you have a very strong case.

Could you drop all other overtime to reduce the total you are doing? Will they assign the days in lieu or can you choose when to take them?

Thanks for the reply; I would have to work a substantive amount of overtime every week (probably double my normal core hours) for my hourly wage to drop below minimum wage. I believe that they are going to allow the lieu days to be taken at my discretion obviously outside of November and December.

TELLIT01

The company doesn't have to put in the contract of employment that no leave can be taken in a specific period. So long as staff are permitted to take their holiday within the leave year, the company can dictate the dates that some or all of that leave is taken.
What is considered 'reasonable' regarding overtime clearly varies between individuals, but I would consider 14 hours per week unpaid overtime 'reasonable' either.
Bottom line though is that you have few protections as you have been with the employer under 2 years. You have the options of fighting your corner and coming up with a more acceptable figure, keeping quiet and accepting what the company wants, finding another job and leaving, or simply leaving.

TELLIT01

The OP posted more during the time I was composing my previous post. If they are prepared to give time in lieu that's more in line with my own experience of salaried roles where unpaid o/t is an expected element. The salary is deemed to include an amount of unpaid o/t, which the OP was aware of.

inglorius

TELLIT01 wrote: »

What is considered 'reasonable' regarding overtime clearly varies between individuals, but I would consider 14 hours per week unpaid overtime 'reasonable' either.

Sorry, did you mean 14 hours overtime a week to be reasonable or reasonable?

Undervalued

inglorius wrote: »

Sorry, did you mean 14 hours overtime a week to be reasonable or reasonable?

There are lots of professional people with salaried jobs and a nominal 35 hour week who regularly work 50 hours plus. Rightly or wrongly in many fields it can be the expected norm, particularly if you want to make a name for yourself and progress. For example, I know that the head teacher of a special needs school who is onsite for at least 12 hours a day then deals with emails etc from home late at night!

Ultimately you have to look at the whole package. Averaged out over the year are you happy with the salary and other benefits in exchange for the number of hours expected?

FBaby

Indeed, you can compare yourself to hourly paid staff, especially if on 0 contracts. You get a much better equivalent hourly income and being flexible comes with it.

I think what they are doing is a bit cheeky, but I do think that getting a day in lieu is very fair. I don't think you could expect anything more.

Sarastro

http://www.welfareatwork.co.uk/unpaid-overtime-know-your-rights.html

You can't be forced to do more than 48 hours a week but even if you are breaching this your employer could argue it's annualised.

Your employer also has to abide by the terms in your contract so if it isn't in there, you don't have to do it. However, it sounds suitably vaguely worded to be unclear. Does it say anything about how you will be compensated for the overtime? e.g. time off in lieu? Does it say anything about who decides when you do the overtime? If not, you can negotiate with them and you don't have to do it.

You can either have a debate with them about the definition of reasonable in the contract or try to negotiate a change in the terms of the contract. Remember your employer can't discriminate against any one individual so if they are expecting different things of different managers, you have a good case for changing things.

If you have a Union rep, I'd go and speak to them as well as ACAS.

inglorius

Undervalued wrote: »

Ultimately you have to look at the whole package. Averaged out over the year are you happy with the salary and other benefits in exchange for the number of hours expected?

Short answer - no.