Overtime?

[shazzabell]

I work in a shop from 9.30 - 6.30, but all too often work until 6.45 due to tidying up, etc. I never get paid for this overtime. Is this legal?

[twiglet4frog]

debateble really as my old job was similar that i was working and paid from 9 - 6 and then they tried to make me sign a contract saying i started from 8.45 - 6 but worked the first 15 mins for free so my wages never changed stating that anything under 30 mins extra wasnt classed as overtime! After a lot of arguements and refusal to sign i ended up quitting and getting a new job! Not sure if they were legal or not to do that but i couldnt be bothered working an extra 1 hour 15 mins a week more for free

[miss_chase]

It is totally legal but talk to your employer about what you can do to make it fair.

As a teacher we work loads over our 'official' working hours and don't have any way of claiming overtime or time off in lieu. Its seen as accepted practice that you work til you get the job done basically. I would suggest you start finishing up at 6.15 so you can leave as close to 6.30 as you can.

Hope that helps. I am sure if you have always been happy to work the extra, your boss will be happy to negotiate things with you - maybe helping you so you can leave at 6.30 (for a shop job I would be looking to only work extra every now and again) 

[Sammy Snake]

I worked for a high street bank that also didn't let you claim overtime unless you did more than 30 mins, and then only with prior approval.

The problem was, the branch opened at 9:00am so to get the cash from the safe and get the counter set up readyto serve customers etc, you had to be in work at leat 15 mins before opening.  So to cover this, my starting time was 8:45am, so far so good.

The branch closed at 4:30pm - If you got a business customer with lots of cash to pay in turning up at 4:29pm (which frequently happened), you could still be serving them at 4:45pm which is when I should have been going home!  Then the counter had to be balanced, the tills and cash put away and the safe locked up.

Funny how the assistant manager always turned up to help at 5:00pm to ensure you were packed up and out the door by 5:14pm at the latest - so they didn't have to pay overtime!!  Needless to say I don't work there anymore...

[ursula62]

Years ago as a student I worked in my local branch of a big nationwide department store chain. The official shop hours were 9.00 to 6pm.  But they had teh "10 minute rule" that meant you had to be on the shop floor 10 minutes before the shop opened and after the shop closed.  None of this was paid for.  

[twiglet4frog]

in my experience as stated earlier, i never actually had a contract of any sort, they forgot that employers tend to need them, so i left when they decided it would be good to get everyone on a contract. and another reason i left was that they were insisting that i sign to accept i had to give a weeks notice for every year i was there! some of the poor fools who had worked there were actually expecting to have to work 12 weeks notice because they were there 12 years which i thought was ridiculous! Because i didnt sign it and decided to leave i got away with just the one week notice

[MORELLO]

Unless it's every night, week on week, where you could add it up to a significant number of hours, it's called flexibility and most employers expect a bit.