Weekend premium pay

Notmything

Hi. Hoping for some guidance and support.

I recently started in a new job where there is occasional Sunday work. My understanding is that in this case I should receive premium pay, an extra allowace or paid time off, ie one of these.

However my employer does not do any of these, when I queried they informed me they are exempt under the EU working time directive but refused to say how this was the case. I was then told it was none of my business as they have never paid extra for Sunday.

I ve looked online and cannot find anything to back up what they are saying and am planning to contact NERA or whatever it is called. But as I'm only in the door it was strongly implied that I will be sacked if I continue to raise this issue.

Anyone any advice or come across this before?

davo2001

What type of job is it? What's your role?

Darc19

That's gone quite a while.

If your contract includes a 7 days roster or includes Sunday or simply doesn't state the days, it's covered.

To be pedantic they should say that the rate includes a premium for Sunday working. If it doesn't, then you could tell them that a premium must be paid.

They can then add 5c per hour to your overall rate and that's it.

Many retail companies will pay about 30c more per hour on all hours and this would take into account a Sunday premium. Someone working 70 hours a month and 15 of those being Sunday hours, this would work out as about 20% Sunday premium.

Darc19

Also for the first 12 months they can simply say "we regret that you are not suitable for the position and your employment is now terminated"

Then give you a week's pay in lieu of notice and tell you to eff off.

bobbyy gee

are you salary or hourly


https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2003/overtime-in-europe

Notmything

It's residential work. We are on an hourly rate, strangely bank holidays are double time or an extra day annual leave.

I am fully aware they can let me go at any time.

Fwiw I haven't received a contract yet, there a couple of months.

Darc19

Notmything wrote: »

It's residential work. We are on an hourly rate, strangely bank holidays are double time or an extra day annual leave.

I am fully aware they can let me go at any time.

Fwiw I haven't received a contract yet, there a couple of months.

Bank holiday is totally different to a Sunday. It's a "holiday" and if you only worked Tuesday to Friday you are entitled to bank holiday pay at 4/5ths of a day.

If it's standard that the position would have some Sunday work and you were aware of that when you took the position, I would be fairly certain that they have this covered.

I'll assume that the pay is higher than €10.10 per hour.

miezekatze

I think this depends on your contract, but you say you didn't get one. I used to work in an IT support role which required regular weekend work (1-2 weekends a month). We didn't get anything extra when working Saturdays and Sundays, just got time off in lieu. So in those weeks I would just have Monday and Tuesday off instead of the weekend.

Notmything

Darc19 wrote: »

Bank holiday is totally different to a Sunday. It's a "holiday" and if you only worked Tuesday to Friday you are entitled to bank holiday pay at 4/5ths of a day.

If it's standard that the position would have some Sunday work and you were aware of that when you took the position, I would be fairly certain that they have this covered.

I'll assume that the pay is higher than €10.10 per hour.

Oh I was aware that Sunday work was expected but every other company I've worked for always had premium pay for weekends.

If it turns out they are exempt or are not required to pay that's fine but my union says different. However as I'm the only member who works for the company (none of my co-workers are in the union) and the company doesn't engage with unions I'm trying to work out what's the reality.

un5byh7sqpd2x0

There’s no legal requirement to pay extra for working on a Sunday.

Notmything

From Citizens information:
"Sunday working
If you work on Sundays, your entitlement to extra pay may be agreed between you and your employer. Under the Organisation of Working Time Act, if there is no agreement about your pay, your employer must give you one or more of the following for Sunday working:

A reasonable allowance
A reasonable pay increase
Reasonable paid time off work
What is reasonable depends on all the circumstances. It should be negotiated between you and your employer and, where applicable, your trade union. You may be able to obtain some guidance by referring to an agreement applying to comparable employees elsewhere in similar employment"

So has this been superceded or replaced by new legislation?

Darc19

Notmything wrote: »

From Citizens information:
"Sunday working
If you work on Sundays, your entitlement to extra pay may be agreed between you and your employer. Under the Organisation of Working Time Act, if there is no agreement about your pay, your employer must give you one or more of the following for Sunday working:

A reasonable allowance
A reasonable pay increase
Reasonable paid time off work
What is reasonable depends on all the circumstances. It should be negotiated between you and your employer and, where applicable, your trade union. You may be able to obtain some guidance by referring to an agreement applying to comparable employees elsewhere in similar employment"

So has this been superceded or replaced by new legislation?

Above is where Sunday work is introduced after you start.

As I said, once you are being paid more than minimum wage and Sunday working is a standard part of the job, you have no additional entitlement

If you don't like it, find another job.

thefa

Saying this as someone is who has made poor remuneration assumptions previously, you need to be thorough when going through the pay terms and expectations before the job is accepted because companies will be ruthless when it comes to this.

If you are close enough to other people in the same role you could ask about Sundays to at least give yourself peace of mind that it is not only you but beware that staff with greater tenure may actually have better terms.

Think you need to decide whether the lost Sunday premiums are material enough to warrant moving on while obviously factoring in the other key parts of this job versus what else is out there.