Stored Hours/Lieu Days

md99

Hi,

I'm working for the mother of all evils, Ladbrokes Ireland. It's a full time summer job for me at the moment while I'm in college. Here's the thing. The previous bookmakers I worked for (Celtic Bookmakers, run by the father of all evil Ivan Yates) was a delight when it came to payment. If I worked a 50 hour week, I'd be paid for every cent of it. They also often paid extra ie they paid us 8 hours double time on a Sunday when we only worked 6.5. So, yeah, great stuff.

Now I'm in Ladbrokes and they seem to be operating on a 'stored hours' policy which applies to all staff. This means that all staff will only be paid for up to 35 basic hours in one week - even though they may often actually work 40-50 hours. So if I work 48 hours, I will only be paid for 35 at the end of the week - the 13 extra hours are "stored", and I may then take them as a 'lieu day' eg I tell them I want next Saturday off, and they will pay me for it even though I do not work it.

Yes, this is complete and utter crap. Everyone hates it - in the past, anything over 35 hours worked was paid to the staff as overtime. This situation seems to be just crazy, especially as they are taking on so many staff to work these hours that the veteran staff may no longer work. Everyone seems to be saying it is 'illegal' for them to do this (although, admittedly, nobodies doing anything to stop it) - can anyone clarify the situation on this?

The other problem is that when it comes to claiming these additional hours as 'lieu days', the company will pull any scam possible so as to NOT pay them. People have quit over this problem, one instance I heard of involved somebody on a 7 hour-a-week (casual student) contract working 45 hours in one week, being paid only for the 35 and then being refused his 10 hours because he 'cant claim them on a seven hour contract.' While there's a new story like this every week, I myself have been underpaid - up to €100 in one case - 4 times since I started in February. However, they haver rectified this at my (repeated) request. One of my colleagues is still waiting to be paid for a Sunday he worked a month ago. Today, I am especially bitter as I received no pay for a 'lieu day' I took last week which I was told was 'fine.'

So, guys, what's the deal? Thanks to anyone who can help me!

seamus

All depends on contracts.

It's not illegal to have employees get their overtime as time in lieu. For part-time employees afaik, there's nothing wrong with paying them normal time for all time up to a normal working week 35, or 37 or 40 or whatever hours) and then overtime above that. It's normal in most place afaik, but again it depends on what the contract says.

If the company is failing to do what the employment contract says, they're not breaking the law per se, but they can be sued for breach of contract.

The only area where there may be an issue is maximum working hours. You cannot work more than 48 hours per week. This rule is taken as an average over a certain number of weeks. So it's OK to work 60 hours one week, provided that your average weekly hours over 6 (?) weeks doesn't exceed 48.

Nody

seamus wrote: »

All depends on contracts.

It's not illegal to have employees get their overtime as time in lieu. For part-time employees afaik, there's nothing wrong with paying them normal time for all time up to a normal working week 35, or 37 or 40 or whatever hours) and then overtime above that. It's normal in most place afaik, but again it depends on what the contract says.

If the company is failing to do what the employment contract says, they're not breaking the law per se, but they can be sued for breach of contract.

The only area where there may be an issue is maximum working hours. You cannot work more than 48 hours per week. This rule is taken as an average over a certain number of weeks. So it's OK to work 60 hours one week, provided that your average weekly hours over 6 (?) weeks doesn't exceed 48.

As noted above you don't usually get OT until you've reached 40h a week and I think it is actually measured over 6 months but it was a while ago I had to deal with that part of the legislation.

As I recall when I was looking at Ladbrokes etc. they usually did 50h in the summer and 30h during the winter to average out to 40h a year.