Recently discovered I have not been getting offered overtime

[tinman764]

Hey everyone.

It came to my attention recently that over the last 6 months (at a conservative estimate) I have not been offered any available overtime while my co-worker who holds exactly same position as me has been offered (and taken) many overtime opportunities.

I confronted my supervisor as soon as I found this out and asked why I was not being offered OT any more. His explanation was rather rude and confusing. He said that any previous OT that I had accepted had only been done so on "my own terms".

I had asked my manager if it was OK to be excused the weekend stock take that happened in February this year due to personal circumstances. This had been accepted by my manager, but was used as an excuse for not offering OT by my supervisor now.

I have also previously worked OT at very short or no notice. However I have not done this for a year or so as I did not agree with how I was being treated at work, despite my effort to help them out.

My contract does not have any OTE clause and I have taken a look on the .gov website where it classes this as discrimination. Should I go to CAB or take it up with my employer?

After my meeting with my supervisor, he said he would "review the decision" regarding my OT. I must admit I was rather angry and told him to not bother with this.

Thanks.

 

[Sparx]

I think you need to make your mind up first whether you even want to do overtime. Your post has rather conflicting sentences.

 

[tinman764]

Sorry. A bit more detail:

I had told my supervisor last year that I was happy to do overtime in the morning, but not in the evening due to my travelling time to/from work.

So yes, in that respect I did want overtime and he knew this while he was denying me the opportunity by not offering me any.

 

[JayT16]

Unless overtime is contractual, your supervisor/manager does not have to offer it to you.

The only way the discrimination card can be played is if you have a protected characteristic and can prove this is the reason.

You may have a protected characteristic but it should be noted that this must be across the board. I.e. you are female, but other females get offered it. This is not discrimination. If all females where excluded that is discrimination.


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[tinman764]

I don't have a protected characteristic.

The government website says this about the issue:

Can an employee be stopped from working overtime?

Unless an employee’s contract guarantees them overtime, their employer can stop them from working it.
However, their employer can’t discriminate against anyone, eg by stopping some employees from working overtime while letting others do so.

(www) gov.uk/overtime-your-rights/compulsory-overtime

Unless I am misinterpreting the text - what has happened is discrimination.

The truth is, I believe that I am being poorly treated at work due to not getting on well with my supervisor and this is the first real evidence that I think I have that I can act on. But I'm not sure how strong this is, or how I should act on it. Or if what Johndthomson says is true, if I even have a case.

Thanks again.

 

[JayT16]

I think it is still prottected characteristics because when u click on the statement of ' discriminate against anyone' on the gov.uk site it takes you to the legal aspect of discrimination I.e. protective characteristics.



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[OldWelshGuy]

I don't have a protected characteristic.

The government website says this about the issue:

(www) gov.uk/overtime-your-rights/compulsory-overtime

Unless I am misinterpreting the text - what has happened is discrimination.

The truth is, I believe that I am being poorly treated at work due to not getting on well with my supervisor and this is the first real evidence that I think I have that I can act on. But I'm not sure how strong this is, or how I should act on it. Or if what Johndthomson says is true, if I even have a case.

Thanks again.

This is why I no longer employ anyone in the UK. You refused to work during the annual stocktake for personal reasons, an Annual stock take is THE most important weekend for a company, yet you took time off, you also dictated how and when you accept overtime, and have issues with your supervisor, and now you are looking to take legal action.

Sorry but why not just get another job? there is no law that states overtime can't be offered to one person and not another, you have already stated YOU placed restrictions on your availability for OT and as a result, your supervisor is favouring the person who has NOT placed restrictions. As far as I know there is not law being broken.

 

[tinman764]

This is why I no longer employ anyone in the UK. You refused to work during the annual stocktake for personal reasons, an Annual stock take is THE most important weekend for a company, yet you took time off, you also dictated how and when you accept overtime, and have issues with your supervisor, and now you are looking to take legal action.

Sorry but why not just get another job? there is no law that states overtime can't be offered to one person and not another, you have already stated YOU placed restrictions on your availability for OT and as a result, your supervisor is favouring the person who has NOT placed restrictions. As far as I know there is not law being broken.

I asked my MANAGER for time off during the stock take and this was accepted. I did not refuse to do anything.

As I also have already stated I used to work OT as needed at no notice. Now correct me if I'm wrong here, but OT is completely voluntary on the part of the employee unless the contract states otherwise.

Why should my decision to refuse to work NO NOTICE overtime any more impact on any future offers?

 

[JayT16]

Sometime as a manager you just ask the person who you know is likely to say yes to OT. Its maybe not the best way but its life. Unfortunately.

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[OldWelshGuy]

I asked my MANAGER for time off during the stock take and this was accepted. I did not refuse to do anything.

As I also have already stated I used to work OT as needed at no notice. Now correct me if I'm wrong here, but OT is completely voluntary on the part of the employee unless the contract states otherwise.

Why should my decision to refuse to work NO NOTICE overtime any more impact on any future offers?

Why are you shouting at me? Seems to me like you are playing the semantic game. myou didn't refuse overtime for the stock take, you asked to take time off, so let me re-phrase this for you, 'you made yourself unavailable' during a period of most need. now of course your manager accepted your request, as it wouldn't have been right not to have, however you surely must understand there will be repercussions? Letting the team down impacts on the team relationships.

you seem quite happy to state as fact that overtime is voluntary, yet you are looking to take action against your employer? You can't have it both ways,

Your final paragraph shows a little bit of naievety on your part. Employers favour the employee who is most loyal, FACT. you have set conditions on when you will do overtime (which you are completely entitled to do) but then you can't complain that you are not getting your fair share, because there is no fair share to be had. the employer can offer overtime to anyone he wants, and he/she will be braking no laws, because, as you went to pains to point out, it is voluntary, there is no statutory obligation on either party.

your employer could possibly justify not offering you overtime on the fact you had previously made it clear that you didn't want overtime at certain hours.

I have to say this though, you are coming across as an aggressive personality, your choise of words in your original post sealed it for me. 'I confronted him' your choice of terms pretty much sealed it for me in that you were lookign for confrontation, and got what you were looking for. The guy told you the reason you were not offered it is beca=use it had to be 'on your terms', which again is an indication that you had friction previously with regard overtime.

Finally you are looking to sue your employee for discrimination. All in all it doesn't read well, and sadly you are coming across as the sort of employe that a business doens't need

 

[tinman764]

I came here looking for advice on my situation and instead I get words put into my mouth, told I'm disloyal to my employer and now I'm an "employe that a business doens't need".

You bet I sound aggressive.

 

[Newchodge]

An employer may offer overtime to whichever employee they choose, provided the reason for the choice is not a protected characteristic under equality law. So raise it with your employer, and ask to be considered for future overtime. If you still don't get any there is nothing you can do about it legally.

 

[simon field]

Tinman, reading your post it seems you want to 'do something' to your employer, what is that? - just out of interest

For instance, is it that you'd like to force them to offer you OT?

Also I note that you've told him 'not to bother'. What would you take that to mean?

 

[arcon5]

I wonder how much overtime is actually available in the morning only. Don't companies generally try to get work done in normal hours then get people to work OT if falling behind later in the week or at the end of the day?


You seem to see Overtime as a right/entitlement rather than an extra. Your entitlement is to the number of hours on the contract.

You will struggle to claim discrimination if it is based on a non-protected characteristic such as sex, race, religion, sexuality etc. Claims for 'he likes him more than me' don't carry much weight. Not what you want to hear I know, but doesn't change the facts.

But now you've just made problems at work with your attitude.

And telling him to stuff his review of OT just makes you look like a stroppy teenager.

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

Unless I am misinterpreting the text - what has happened is discrimination.

The text is very limited, it's a basic informative site, not a comprehensive analysis of the law. If you simply go to https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/types-of-discrimination though (the first page of the section you reference), you'll find the categories that are covered for discrimination. It doesn't cover smokers, slackers, those that choose when to work overtime, etc - you don't have a case.

The truth is, I believe that I am being poorly treated at work due to not getting on well with my supervisor and this is the first real evidence that I think I have that I can act on. But I'm not sure how strong this is, or how I should act on it. Or if what Johndthomson says is true, if I even have a case.

The truth is you don't have a case, even if you are being poorly treated at work, and ideally you need to improve your attitude if you want to improve your position.



Karl Limpert

 

[tinman764]

Tinman, reading your post it seems you want to 'do something' to your employer, what is that? - just out of interest

For instance, is it that you'd like to force them to offer you OT?

Also I note that you've told him 'not to bother'. What would you take that to mean?

I believe that I have been treated unfairly by my immediate superior for a while now and this (I thought) was the 1st opportunity I would have to do something about it.

Sure, I have bought it up before but. But the attitude there has always been one of "don't rock the boat". So I've given up just "complaining" about it and instead looking of actual proof that I can make use of.

When I found out that I was not being offered OT for 6 months or more while my co-worker had been, I was fuming. But, I didn't go storming into the office and have a shouting match, despite what anyone in this thread may think. I confronted my supervisor with the issue and asked for the reasons. The reasons I was given were insulting and a short period of time after leaving the office, I returned and told him to not both "reviewing his decision".
I found the whole thing extremely insulting and frustrating and I am not one of these people who is able to voice their views will while under pressure.

As I already said, I did used to work OT frequently in order to help the company in tight spots. I did this without complaint and most of the time without acknowledgement of my effort.
After quite some time of this and without it improving how I felt I was treated, I determined that there was no point in making this effort any more and I told my supervisor that was no longer available for OT in the evening - though I was still able to work early mornings.

The OT that I have been missing out on includes early morning OT that he knows I would accept.

So yeah, if I sounded aggressive in my posts it's because I don't like being told things that just aren't true. I have been loyal to my employer and it's gotten me nowhere.

Oh and the thing about the annual stock take - we got 2 weeks notice of this and we were expected to drop our plans for the entire weekend (new system, we normally have about 6 months notice). I work 2 jobs and I had already committed that time to my 2nd employer. After chatting to my manager he allowed me to miss the stock take weekend.

 

[Employment Law Clinic]

My contract does not have any OTE clause and I have taken a look on the .gov website where it classes this as discrimination. Should I go to CAB or take it up with my employer?

I believe that I have been treated unfairly by my immediate superior for a while now and this (I thought) was the 1st opportunity I would have to do something about it.

Take it up with your employer, as there is no legal issue here.



Karl Limpert

 

[JayT16]

If you really want OT you can have mine.

I dont get notice, extra pay, flexibility of when or how.



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[kulture]

One question that springs to mind is how come you did not notice that a colleague was getting overtime for six months?