refused overtime pay

mishmash02

My company asked for volunteers to work later hours to limit staff due to covid around October.

Over Christmas time I volunteered for it.

Workload increases a lot over Christmas and quite a lot of pressure and demand is placed on workers to do as much as they can.

I was asked will I be clearing my whole workload.

All over Christmas I came in a little earlier and stayed a little later and making notes to HR about what overtime I'd done.

After receiving my first wage slip (I am paid weekly)

None had been paid. I mention it to my manager who tells me "I will look into it"

I continue with the overtime and continue to log it to HR.

Again, it is not paid, so I then refuse to do any more overtime until it is sorted.

I get told I have to speak to someone higher up in the company about it. But I would constantly strive at work at 2pm and they were never there. All the while it's getting brushed under the carpet.

I came back to work my usual morning shifts for one week just to catch him.

Now I'm being told by him "a manager hasn't asked you to come in, so I'm not paying you."

I'm absolutely appalled at the treatment.

I work hard and I worked very hard over Christmas to get all my work done.

I'm just wondering where I stand legally.

It's my word against the managers on me doing the overtime and now he's refusing to say he wanted the whole workload done and backtracking on the issue.

And I'm the one out of pocket by 20 hours worth of overtime.

74jax

Do you have the email asking for the volunteers? Did it state overtime or just to volunteer to do this work? 
For what it's worth I think it's apawling and would be feeling the same as you, but the devil is in the detail - hunt out the email and see if it mentions overtime. 
When you were asked if you would be clearing your overtime, did you say yes with overtime, yes in usual hours or something else? We're you asked to clear it as overtime? 

Marcon

The word 'volunteer' leaps out of your post. Was there ever an agreement that you'd be paid overtime?

mishmash02

Sorry, it made it seem like the work was voluntary. It was to go from working 0900-1430 to working 1400 to 1930 to reduce staffing numbers in the office (due to covid) but they weren't forcing anyone to change the normal working hours, it was voluntary if you wanted to start and finish work later.

You were still getting paid and working the same hours as what were in your contract, just a different start time.

Sorry for the confusion.

But it was outside of these hours I was coming in earlier and finishing later as my manager would ask if I was clearing the workload and I agreed I would and that I'd make a note of when I finished and put it on the desk so it could be put through as all overtime is booked in, in the morning and they have gone home before I arrive on my later shift.

TELLIT01

Do you have anything writing authorising the overtime you worked?  If you took it on yourself to do so in order to clear the workload, but didn't have it formally agreed there is nothing you can do - other than refuse to work overtime in future.

Diamandis

Being asked if you're going to get your workload done isn't permission to start doing overtime and expecting to be paid for it.

mishmash02

There is nothing I have in writing. I didn't take it upon myself to just go and do overtime. The workload increases dramatically over the Christmas period and it's a well known fact through the company that during this time work cannot be completed without either extra help or booking overtime. I asked the manager "shall I leave a note on your desk with the overtime I've done" and this is exactly what I've done every Christmas I've worked there and there was never an issue.

This year however we had a change in management.

He had no qualms on me completing the workload and leaving a note on his desk with what hours overtime I needed to book and told me he would sort it. But as I said, it was all verbal. No other person was there. And now he's backtracking.

If I happen not to have a leg to stand on, then so be it. I'll take it as a hard lesson.

Also I just wanted to check the actual law on breaks.

When I agreed to work a later shift. I asked if I could choose when I would have my break in which I took it at the end.

I can't find anything in the working time regulations about how it's law not to take your break at the end of a shift and I've also looked in my contract and the works policy on breaks. None of them mention anything about not being able to take your break at the start or end of the shift.

Is it law that breaks have to be taken in the middle of a shift?

unforeseen

https://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/workingtime.htm

A worker is entitled to an uninterrupted break of 20 minutes when daily working time is more than six hours. It should be a break in working time and should not be taken either at the start, or at the end, of a working day.

getmore4less

if a "break" is taken at the beginning or end it is not a break.

The law does no require you to take a break.
Your employer may require you to take the break and it can be unpaid.

bartelbe

I am afraid you have been caught in the going the extra mile trap that many fall into here. Someone I use to work with agreed to come into work a bit early, management were very please with him but he was not so pleased when he discovered he wasn't getting paid for the extra hour he had been working on each shift. He had nothing in writing and his contract still specified his original hours. As far as management were concerned he had volunteered to work longer for free. To rub salt into the wound, he was let go in the new year.

The lesson from all this is never work for free, always get everything in writing and never go the extra mile unless you are guaranteed to get something in return for doing that. Work is a business relationship, they aren't your friends and your time is valuable. If your employer wants your time, they have to pay for it and agree to do that in writing.