Change in pay

LegacyUser

Hi Everyone,

I've worked in a medium sized company for over two years. When I started my contract was very basic and stated that I was Monday - Friday 9 - 17.30 with an hour lunch a day. To me this is 37.5 hours per week. Any extra time worked was calculated by the hour. For example say I was on 100,000 a year it would be 51.28 an hour so if I did 5 hours overtime I would get 256.41 extra and it would be stated as overtime on my payslip. I would do a lot of overtime every week and there was no problems.

Fast forward to April - Instead of getting 51.28 an hour overtime I start getting 48.07 an hour. Because I was getting a few hours extra I didn't notice. This week I questioned it and I am told I am on a 40 hour contract and that is how the overtime is based. When I explained how my overtime rate was always based on 37.5 hours I was told that was incorrect.

I don't believe this at all - why would a company pay for 40 hours when you work 37.5. Do I have any leg to stand on here? I was advised that I wouldn't win and I could end up paying them back for the miscalculation. I am not on the salary above (considerably less) so is it even worth my while to fight for less than 50.00?

dennyk

What specifically does your contract say about overtime pay? Overtime isn't usually required by law, so the contract will govern. It should specify your rate of overtime pay there; if it explicitly says it's to be based on your effective hourly rate calculated from your annual salary, and you are in fact contracted for 37.5 hours a week (is your hour-long lunch period actually in your contract?), you might have a case to argue.

Whether it's worth fighting is a good question, though; pushing back would undoubtedly make your employer unhappy and certainly could impact your future career at the company. Most salaried employees don't receive any extra pay at all for overtime work, so you're one of the lucky few already; not sure if you'd want to jeopardise that over a relatively small amount of pay when you might not be successful in the end anyway.

Mrs OBumble

Paying overtime based on a 40 hour week, even though you're actually required to work a few less hours, is pretty normal. I don't know why it's done, just that it is.

GerardKeating

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

Paying overtime based on a 40 hour week, even though you're actually required to work a few less hours, is pretty normal. I don't know why it's done, just that it is.

Never hard of this before, overtimes was (for me anyway) always paid on the hours over and above the normal working hours.

OMM 0000

9:00 - 17:30 is 8.5 hours in the office.

If you work more than 6 hours you're entitled to a 30 minute break, and there's no entitlement to be paid for this break, and it's not considered working time.

So actually your company are being pretty decent:

You're officially working 40 hours a week. You're getting 30 minutes break per day (unpaid). But they're throwing in an extra 30 minutes break per day (paid).

I think you should let it go.

LegacyUser

My contract doesn't say anything about overtime. I started out the in a junior role and advanced very quickly, never got a new contract other than the one I started with. I was told that if I did any overtime I would get paid for it, which I do. Problem is that they changed it from calculating my hourly rate - previously working it out by getting my hourly rate from dividing my weekly pay by 37.5 to now dividing it by 40.

My problem is that I was never informed of this change and I dont see how they can just change it and basically say tough titty.

OMM 0000

Me.again wrote: »

My contract doesn't say anything about overtime. I started out the in a junior role and advanced very quickly, never got a new contract other than the one I started with. I was told that if I did any overtime I would get paid for it, which I do. Problem is that they changed it from calculating my hourly rate - previously working it out by getting my hourly rate from dividing my weekly pay by 37.5 to now dividing it by 40.

My problem is that I was never informed of this change and I dont see how they can just change it and basically say tough titty.

They made a mistake before. Be happy they haven't asked for a refund.

LegacyUser

OMM 0000 wrote: »

They made a mistake before. Be happy they haven't asked for a refund.

In my workplace we work the same hours as OP, 37.5 hours a week. Overtime is only paid after the first .5 of an hour daily. When it was introduced it was questioned and we were informed that it is a pretty standard rule across the industry.

BrokenArrows

OP, Easy solution.
Check your contract and find out how many hours your working week is, 37.5 or 40. Then base your argument on that.

SteelyDanJalapeno

But if you did no over time, are you now getting paid for 40 hours? Versus 37.5 before?

JDxtra

I wouldn't rock the boat too much about it. Lucky to be getting overtime at all.