If the reason for overtime is your mistake do you expect to be paid?

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Facilities manager's last job of the day is to check windows are closed and lock up.

He is on call for occasions when the intruder alarm goes off, which he is paid a minimum of two hours OT for.

The reason for the call out is that he missed an open window, leading to a blind moving in the breeze and setting off the alarm.

Would you expect to be paid/pay him in that situation?

No. Unless someone has opened it after he checked.

No.

No, if it was his oversight that caused the issue and you paid him what's to stop him doing it again to earn more money through overtime?

Yes because it's contractual.

You deal with the mistake through the disciplinary procedure.

I think very few people are paid for overtime these days; only those with strong unions!

No - and I'd be wary of asking for overtime in those circumstances because it would be highlighting that I'd omitted to complete my job properly placing me at risk of disciplinary measures...that's aside from the ethical point that asking for overtime for a mistake you've made being completely wrong.

If he is on the minimum wage you might have to pay for the actual time spent.

What gallicgirl said.

Yes. You pay for time working if it's the kind of job where overtime is relevant. If more working time is needed and it wouldn't be if the person was doing their job properly, that needs to be dealt with as a separate issue. I also think that when mistakes are made at work that cost money, part of the response should be to see if there are changes to systems or procedures to stop a repeat, as well as just blaming one person - everyone makes mistakes.

Having said all that, if I was that facilities manager I don't think I'd have the balls to ask for the overtime.

Yes because it's contractual.

You deal with the mistake through the disciplinary procedure.

I'm with gallicgirl.

As the employee, I would be too embarrassed to mention it!

That said, I would say yes, in the employer's position I would expect to pay. All being well, it's not a mistake you'd expect him to make twice. If it happened again I think you'd be looking for a new facilities manager.

I've made some stupid mistakes at work, I think we all have.

My first response was "you only get paid for the work that you never make any mistakes on? Are you serious? "
But in that situation, I can kind of see that it might be a bit cheeky to bill for returning to shut a window.
Interesting! I work in a graphics job where we're paid by the quarter-hour. If I had handed over my job to someone on a later shift and left the building without saving and closing the file to make it available to colleagues after me, and if they caught me at the bus stop and I went back to unlock my terminal (sorry, this is turning into a right shaggy dog story) - I would not add that time to my timesheet, I'd just suck that one up.
But, if I run a whole set of charts and realise I've done something wrong and have to do it over again, I would definitely expect to be paid for the hours I'd worked. We ALL make mistakes, including the people who submit work to us to be done in the first place. So those mistakes get swallowed.
Generally, the principle that you only get paid for work that you get right first time is a really dangerous one. It's too close to "We're very quiet. I'm only going to pay you for the hours that you're actually answering a phone query, not for the time that the phone is silent." Different, but somewhere in the same range.
Watching with interest.

If it's a contractual responsibility then yes.

Agree with @gallicgirl, I would expect a disciplinary meeting for that.

Yes, I tend to agree that as employer it has to be paid, but I know I wouldn't have the nerve to claim it if it were me.

I think if he kept doing it then there'd have to be discussions, but if it's a one-off I'd just accept he'd made a mistake and pay him. It's so easy to make a mistake - all of us make them at work.