Not paying overtime if timesheet in late

Throwaway1

Work has emailed all staff to say that overtime will not be paid (not delayed) if overtime sheets are not submitted by a given date and time each month (this changes each month and is emailed out at the start of the month). They said that they will only pay overtime worked during that month. Is that legal? I’m almost certain it’s not. I know about minimum wage rules and the implications of that.

The overtime sheets need signing off by certain members of staff which means the employee is dependent on finding them and getting their signature. Depending on when the overtime was worked, it could mean having to submit it the same day - it could even potentially mean the deadline has passed before the overtime has been completed if it is at the end of the month.

Contracts don’t mention anything about submitting time sheets at all, just that overtime is paid at single rate up to X amount of hours and 1.5x or 2x depending on number of hours/weekends etc. Previously, overtime time sheets have needed to be submitted but there has been no deadline, you would just get paid after the next payment run that occurred after your submission, unless they forgot to pay it and then you got it after you reminded them a few times. It was never communicated when payment runs were so you just handed it in and got paid when you got paid.

It says this applies to previous months too so anyone who didn’t submit a sheet for September won’t be paid for that work even though they hadn’t been made aware of that fact before September ended. 

lisyloo

Can you talk to someone about this?
normally this happens when people doing it late is causing problems, however if it’s beyond your control then it’s unreasonable.
the first step would be to discuss with your manager.

if they are still being completely unreasonable then you have to consider your position and whether it’s worth either refusing to do overtime or finding another job.
if your employer isn’t normally totally unreasonable then it’s worth discussing and finding out what they Intend.
sometimes things are written but never implemented.
for example I don’t get sick pay, but it’s been paid to me, they just retain the right to withhold to protect themselves from people taking the mick.
it might be your employer has no intention of implementing this unless there is abuse of the system as it’s causing them admin/accounting issues.

Throwaway1

lisyloo said:

Can you talk to someone about this?
normally this happens when people doing it late is causing problems, however if it’s beyond your control then it’s unreasonable.
the first step would be to discuss with your manager.

if they are still being completely unreasonable then you have to consider your position and whether it’s worth either refusing to do overtime or finding another job.
if your employer isn’t normally totally unreasonable then it’s worth discussing and finding out what they Intend.
sometimes things are written but never implemented.
for example I don’t get sick pay, but it’s been paid to me, they just retain the right to withhold to protect themselves from people taking the mick.
it might be your employer has no intention of implementing this unless there is abuse of the system as it’s causing them admin/accounting issues.

Thank you. I do want to mention it to someone but I just wasn’t sure who. I’m normally happy to just mention it myself and would happily question HR about it but I’m not sure if it’s not appropriate and to go through the proper channels instead. The problem with that is that my line manager has a personal connection to the business manager and would defend anything that saves them money. They have been guilt tripping the people they line manage to take overtime as TOIL for a while, even though that isn’t what they want to do and isn’t mentioned in their contracts. They have even gone one step further and started asking people to do the occasional overtime voluntarily, which some people have even though others are being paid. When I pointed out that I thought it was unfair they said that it’s their choice as it is voluntary, which is of course true (although if it happens too many times it may start to affect NMW requirements, ‘voluntary’ or not).

The other option is contacting my union and seeing what they say. I don’t want to do that though if work is within their rights to do this.

eamon

In your shoes my first action would be to speak to the line manager, if no joy there then his/her boss. Also if you are a union member and your employer recognises them then speak to your rep. IMHO if the overtime has been approved by management then why are employees running around finding a manager to sign a bit of paper?

Worse case scenario is that your employers just don't want to pay overtime without actually saying so. Stick to your contracted hours, decline overtime and don't fall for any of that TOIL nonsense.

theoretica

My first call would be to ask HR if they could clarify the wording - as of course they can't mean you need to have overtime done on the 28th signed off by the 20th, but that is how you are reading it...