to think they should have at least told us this first?

[overtimewoes]

This is covid-adjacent.

I've name changed.

I work for an NHS trust. At the beginning of the pandemic my colleagues and I were asked to take on extra shifts on COVID work (i.e. not our usual job but work we are qualified to do - ENT resident working in ICU etc). These were "voluntary" (if enough people hadn't volunteered they'd have been mandatory, it was necessary work) and in addition to our contracted hours and therefore we were offered overtime, which according to the email is "time and half".

I, and my colleagues, took this to mean 1.5 times our usual hourly rate. Due to the way overtime is paid, we didn't receive any payment until the most recent wage slip. When we all received our pay, we queried it as it was A LOT less than we had been expecting (by almost half). To be told that all overtime hours, regardless of job role and seniority is capped at £16 per hour. So overtime is paid at a maximum of £24 per hour. My hourly rate is £23 per hour. So for the extra shift (12 hour per week) I am getting an extra £1 per hour.

It's not the hourly rate that has pissed me off, but that we weren't informed of the 'true' payment. I've worked well over and above my hours, for free during this pandemic, I'm not greedy and have happily been doing it, it has been necessary. But when I'm told I will be paid one thing, I don't expect to be paid another. I'd have done the shifts for my normal rate, I've worked an average of 10 hours per week for free throughout it's not the money that's the issue, it's the duplicity.

the extra money was how I sold it to DH though, who has had to work a full time job and do all the child care as I have practically lived at the hospital 6 days a week.

AIBU to be annoyed?

all overtime hours, regardless of job role and seniority is capped at £16 per hour. So overtime is paid at a maximum of £24 per hour. My hourly rate is £23 per hour. So for the extra shift (12 hour per week) I am getting an extra £1 per hour.

Basically £16 normal hourly rate is the highest to benefit from time and a half (16 + 8 = 24), so anyone who earns above that an hour ordinarily will receive less than time and a half as it's capped at 24. So OP who normally earns 23 only gets £1 extra because it's capped at 24.

I'm not sure about the outrage at the usual unpaid overtime, I think most well paid professionals routinely start and finish a bit earlier/later than their contracted hours.

What outrage? OP has specifically said she doesn't begrudge this. What she does begrudge is being deliberately misled, and quite rightly so.

As pointed out, this is incredibly shortsighted. Come the second wave, no-one in OPs position is going to be fall for it a second time.

the response I've had from payroll is that is was agreed at a previous, unspecified, pay negotiation

I think I would be asking a lot more questions about this meeting - when was it, who was present, how were these changes to your pay and conditions communicated to you and when, etc etc.

I would be furious in your shoes and making a huge stink.

This is one of the reasons I no longer work for the NHS..it's an absolute shower of shite with anything regarding HR or pay

To be told that all overtime hours, regardless of job role and seniority is capped at £16 per hour.

Surely that's widely known and in accordance with the standard employment contract etc?

Other posters outraged on her behalf Bash, I know OP accepts it, others seem to think she shouldn't.

This doesn't surprise me unfortunately ,when I worked for the NHS ,these types of things happens regularly and it was notoriously difficult to get it sorted .

All doctors work plenty of unrostered overtime for free, whichever salaried office worker had their nose out of joint about that....and if you’d prefer our conditions you have only to go to medical school....

Do you have a collective body that negotiates for you? I’m not in the UK so don’t know. It is however common for pay here to be wrong, withheld or simply non-compliant with the law and the attitude from non-clinical staff is usually that as a dr your earning enough to just overlook the incompetence/lies.

*you’re

Not illiterate.

Where I work if you don’t work full time ie 37 hrs a week then any ‘overtime’ is paid at basic rate - otherwise I could end up earning more than a FT employee. Do you think that’s the case here?

YANBU!

And its massively disingenuous to say the OP should have read the fine print so tough luck. It will only push people to refuse overtime in the future.

I would want the pay to be corrected asap, but given how poorly employers in all sectors look after good staff, I wouldn't hold my breath. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if there was some insulting bs to follow, like an email letter for head of trust saying how he appreciates your hard work, you are a credit to the country, that there have been some questions about overtime pay and a review has been undertaken.... and you'll never hear anything about it again.

That’s awful, but knowing the NHS doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. You have it in writing and would take it further.

YANBU.
The email said time and a half, no mention of a cap. That’s what you should be paid.

Are you a junior doctor or nurse?

Our Trust did similar.
At the beginning of lockdown we were emailed asking to commit to additional 12 hour shifts on Covid wards for an additional flat payment of £100 per shift. On top of usual pay. (Band 5 and 6).
Loads of people completed their extra shifts and have been paid no extra at all. Just basic rates.
Considering the additional dangers they placed themselves in, to receive no extra at all after being promised it, is just awful.

@overtimewoes

I'm not a nurse

Thanks for clarifying as I stopped at the £23 ph rate... YANBU about expecting a clear set of expectations

Our trust paid for the standard value of the role regardless of usual banding - job roles are banded, not the employee. However, that should have been made much clearer to you and you have every right to be annoyed.

shockthemonkey overtime is either paid at 'time' (hourly rate) or 'time and a half' (hourly rate plus 50%) the hourly rate is capped at £16 therefore time and a half is capped at £24.

It’s disgusting, but doesn’t surprise me at all, sounds just like something my trust would do! That’s if they bother to pay us the OT at all...

Union. That’s really bad. I feel really angry for you. As if your life hasn’t been tough enough over the last few months. Thank you for what you are doing

Not the same thing but there was a,huge problem at the trust I worked for when the bank staff went from weekly to monthly pay ,lots of people ended up not getting any pay for months ,and HR were atrocious they just said people should have savings to fall back on🙄and they just couldn't understand that a lot of bank staff relied on their wages and it was,nt just a bit of extra " fun" money .

Go to the press with this - contact Sky news, the BBC, the Guardian for a start.
Contact Jon Ashworth. Email your MP.

You and your colleagues were promised 1.5 X rate, the NHS should honour that promise and pay you from the funding the Government have provided for Covid.

We can't make them - but you can if you stir it up enough.

My first thought is that you seem to be quite well paid for a nurse. Are you quite senior? There's been so much press about poorly paid nurses recently.
My second thought is that surely your overtime rate is documented in your contract.
And my third thought is that you are lucky to be paid overtime at all. Many people on that kind of hourly rate are not paid overtime. I get paid less than that and have worked crazy hours supporting my employer over Covid. No overtime.

This may be part of a wider problem.
There was a post on Twitter about a 3rd year nursing student, who, along with others agreed to start working early due to the pandemic.
However, their trust is now saying they were volunteering, not working.
Can anyone confirm? Any other examples of NHS staff being shafted, and paid in claps?

Op.has said she's not a nurse .