HR - Overtime Claims - 5PM Onward

[Simon Johnson]

I fancy airing this as perhaps i'm being a bit of a grumpy sod.

When i used to work for someone, i would regularly work after 5pm to catch up on day to day work, i wouldst get paid for this but it meant i had a clear desk in the morning.

Fast forward i'm now the employer, im going through some claim forms, one has 10Hrs of overtime claimed between 5pm & 6pm over a month. That's £120.

This works two ways, of course id rather people wrap matters up, perhaps a lower tier of overtime should be recommended for these hours.

Lets hear it.

 

[Podge]

Are your staff paid hourly ?

 

[Simon Johnson]

No, they all on salaries. Their contracts specify the hours of 9am - 5pm

 

[kulture]

I would get your contracts tidied up to clarify overtime.

In the current case, was the overtime requested before hand, was it authorised before being done, and was it reasonable?

The employee in particular, are they someone you want to keep, or let go?

Personally I would only pay overtime if it was authorised. I would expect people to be able to do their jobs in the normal hours BUT I would not want a clock watcher. i.e. someone who downs tools an the dot. Likewise i would expect some give and take. If a good employee worked a few extra minutes in a day to finish off something then I would not object to the odd coffee break.

Its all about not taking the piss. As an employer I would not want to overload an employee so they HAD to work extra unpaid, nor would I want an employee to stop mid task when the clock strikes 5pm.

 

[Podge]

That makes it a bit trickier.
If you are asking them on a regular basis to finish tasks beyond 5pm then yes I would say you were obliged to pay them.
If they are working beyond 5pm off their own initative ie to clear the decks for the next day then I would say they are helping themselves rather than you and shouldn't expect extra pay.
If the workload is such that your employees don't have the time to finish the tasks asked of them then maybe you need to employ another member of staff.
As an employee all my working life I have treated my employer as they have treated me. If they're fair with me I will bend over backwards to help them if not they get nothing more than a fair days work.

 

[IANL]

In my view and how I used to work, they were paid, a salary, to do a task. If that meant that they had to work extra hours, that was part of the job (my view was if we were profiting from their extra time then I would pay for it, if it was part of the normal admin of the business then I wouldn't.. If someone is paid hourly and they are not completing there tasks in that time then a performance review would be in order. It may be that you are asking them to do much in a givem time OR they are taking too long making tea / coffee /fag break.

I sued to have a lady that would arrive 5 mins late, always be 5 - 10 mins late bac from lunch and what to go bang on the dot even though there was hang over work to be done.


I put her right in a few areas and it settled down

There is a lot more to what I have outlined here and I have got the clauses I had in their contracts somewhere.

This was our Drivers Overtime Policy
"The Following overtime Policy applies to all Driver and Audio Visual Technicians on the payroll of the Company
This policy is under constant review and any changes to it will be notified to you with two months notice.
Overtime is hours worked over and above your contracted hours, as detailed in your contract of employment.
Overtime will only be paid with the prior approval of the Operations Manager.
Overtime payments will only be eligible after you have completed or been available for your standard weekly contracted hours.
The company reserves the right to give time off in lieu for any overtime worked
Claims must be made weekly, on Mondays, for overtime worked in the previous week, on duly authorised claim forms. Forms should be sent directly to the Operations Manager at the first available opportunity.
Payments for overtime are paid monthly in arrears. All Payments will be made through the payroll. Please note that the cut off date for inclusion in the payroll is normally the 7th of the month for the previous month's overtime.
Overtime rates and timings
After completion of your minimum contracted hours, subject to prior approval, overtime will be paid at 1.5 you normal hourly rate per hour up to a maximum of 4 hours per day. Any hours over must be agreed as a special deal.
Special deals or Buy Out
You must agree any out of hours payments with the operations manager prior to commencement.

 

[JohnnyCash]

I fancy airing this as perhaps i'm being a bit of a grumpy sod.

When i used to work for someone, i would regularly work after 5pm to catch up on day to day work, i wouldst get paid for this but it meant i had a clear desk in the morning.

Fast forward i'm now the employer, im going through some claim forms, one has 10Hrs of overtime claimed between 5pm & 6pm over a month. That's £120.

This works two ways, of course id rather people wrap matters up, perhaps a lower tier of overtime should be recommended for these hours.

Lets hear it.

I think it depends. If you are letting them play on Facebook and personal emails and so on during the day then they can't really expect to bill you for 15mins of over time here and there.

if they are working solid from 9-5 every single day and simply can't finish the work load you are giving them, then you should be paying them for the over time.

If you don't sort it out, you're almost rewarding laziness. They can mess about through the day, stay a little later and get an extra £100 a month, so why wouldn't they?

 

[Tom McClelland]

I think it partly depends what kind of level these employees are. If they want to be regarded as "professionals" then putting in for overtime to complete work at the end of the day is taking the proverbial. But if they are juniors then I think it is reasonable for them to expect to get overtime if they can't complete their work in normal contractual hours.

Watch out for people who are still making their arrival coffee or having fag-break at 9:15 yet they manage to be out the door like a greyhound at 5pm, or they're putting in for overtime for every extra minute spent in the office at day's end. Clock-watching should cut both ways. If they clock-watch at "home time" then it is OK for you to clock-watch when they should be working. Typically the people who do that kind of thing will be the same people who mysteriously manage to be ill for the same number of days as their contract says they get sick pay in full for during the year.

 

[saxondale]

whats your facebook, internet, mobiel phone policy? ........................ bet they wasted 10hrs gossiping alone that month.

 

[Parthelan]

If you don't sort it out, you're almost rewarding laziness. They can mess about through the day, stay a little later and get an extra £100 a month, so why wouldn't they?

We were salaried and never got overtime, ever, for any reason. There was an option for it to be authorised, but it never ever was. If we did go over, and it was authorised, we got time off in lieu. Course, this had to be used once a certain amount of hours were accumulated, and you could never find the time to take it.
Except for the agency staff, who regularly when over their booked hours to ''finish things off'' or ''tidy up'' as they were on an hourly rate
I put a blanked ban on all overtime payments for the agency staff - when they realised they werent getting paid for staying over, suddenly everything could be finished with time to spare
Mind you, my christmas cards were severely reduced in number that year