Time In Lieu

krisbecs

I worked extra days some months back and was not paid for these. I have asked my employer when I will get them and have been told if/when I am leaving this job I will get them then by way of being able to leave this amount of days earlier. Is this allowed or is it like holidays where they have to be used within the year?

Eoin

Has your annual leave been affected - i.e. can you still take the legal minimum of days off this year?

If this is legal, it's obviously a pretty poor deal for you. At a minimum I'd be pushing to have those days given to you this year.

krisbecs

No my annual leave was not affected however they are looking for me to do more extra days for time in lieu and to be honest I dont want to if I'm not getting them back in the near future.
There have been a number of changes implemented for all staff over the past year or so and the management attitude is well there are plenty of people out there looking for work so put up or leave. I dont want to make too much of a fuss either any ideas?

tatli_lokma

As a manager, letting Time in Lieu run up like this is unwise. also, by saying if/when you leave you will get it, they are being very unfair to you. Unless you leave in the next year, what good is it to you? so if you stay there for 10 years, in 10 years time you can have 4 or 5 days less to serve on your notice. That is daft and very unfair to you.

I know it is tough, given managements attitude, but really you only have 2 options - firmly assert yourself, or suck it up.

It is worth checking your contract or handbook also. There may be a clause in there regarding overtime or TOIL, and the limits of when it can be taken. To avoid the very situation you are in, most employers request that TOIL be taken within 6 weeks of the extra hours being worked or at the very least booked in by that date.

If you do want to try and address the issue, perhaps next time you are asked to work extra hours say 'oh yeah that would suit me cos I need to take x many hours off next week/month'. So in a nice way you are saying, yeah I'll do it but in return for my hours back. You might have to be a bit brazen and literally tell them you will be taking your TOIL, rather than asking for it.
I know you are in fear of your job, but generally when a situation like this arises the employer is relying on people like you with a strong work ethic and letting them fear they could loose their job. In reality they probably wouldn't sack you, but they want you to think you are expendable.

also remember, that employers are required by law to record employee working hours, so your start and finish time need to be monitored. If you are regularly working extra hours and they are not recording it they are in breach of this requirement and can result in a fine for the employer. The maximum average working week for many employees cannot exceed 48 hours. This does not mean that a working week can never exceed 48 hours, it is the average that is important.
Also the more hours you work the higher your Annual leave entitlement can be:
There are 3 different ways of calculating your annual leave entitlement:

•Based on the employee's working hours during what is called the leave year, which runs from April to March. An employee who has worked at least 1,365 hours in the leave year is entitled to the maximum of 4 weeks' annual leave unless the employment ceases during the leave year. Many employers use the calendar year (January-December) instead of the official leave year to calculate entitlement
•By allowing 1/3 of a working week for each calendar month in which the employee has worked at least 117 hours
•8% of the hours worked in the leave year, subject to a maximum of 4 weeks
An employee may use whichever of these methods gives the greater entitlement

So make sure you are keeping an accuarate tally of all hours worked. If needs be, send your manager an email each night when you finish, as this can act as proof as when you worked late. It can be a simple, 'hey, I'm finishing up now, its x o'clock. see you tomorrow'. That way you are providing yourself with proof of your hours.

If they insist on behaving this way then it might be a case you get this TOIL sooner than you think, because not many people would want to work in that kind of exploitative environment. Finally, if you feel you can't push for your TOIL, make sure at the very least you have it in writing that you will at some point get this time back - otherwise its your word against theirs when/if you do finally leave. I was stung like that myself many years ago, and its a lesson you need to learn only once.
best of luck with it