Part time hours/overtime

[Rowgtfc72]

I have worked part time now for nearly six years. For all of this time I have been paid anything over my contracted twenty hours at overtime rate. Last week I worked thirty hours, I assumed ten at overtime rate. This week Im doing forty hours (full time) .I offered this week as we are short staffed and it never hurts to bank favours. I automatically assumed the forty hours would all be paid at my hourly rate as I offered to work this. I have been taken in the office today and told anything over my twenty hours will be paid at normal time and not overtime until I work more than forty hours and this is the law. Is this true? How is it fair I can work more than my contacted hours and never earn overtime rate ? So I will be working alongside full time workers getting time and a half for the same two hours I will only be getting normal time for . This seems very unfair.

I'm not sure about the legalities, and I'm sure someone with a sounder knowledge will be along in a bit - but your employer sounds reasonable in what they are doing. If you were to be paid at O/T rate for anything above your 20 hours, you would be paid a higher rate than the F/T staff - ie they would be disadvantaged by being F/T. Your employer is ensuring parity between F/T and P/T pay by paying you at time up to the 40 hrs.

I'm not sure how you would be paid at normal time when F/T staff are getting time and a half for 2 hrs? If they are working over their 40 hours, they will get time X 1.5, but if you worked over the 40 so would you?

You can see your employer's POV - if you worked a 40 hr week and were paid time X 1.5 for half of it, they would be paying you 25% more than their F/T workers, which can't be fair.

Yes, that's how it's always worked for me, and I've been PT in several organisations. You can't expect to work the same well as your FTE and get paid loads more. That's just not fair.

Thanks for the answers. I am the only p/t worker at my firm and even though Ive been p/t for six years a lot of this is played by ear so wanted to double check what Ive been told. Dont expect to get paid more than the other employees its just theres a big "us and them" between me and them IYSWIM. Doesnt help being the only female but thats a whole nother story !

works like that for us too. time and half is available after 37.5hrs per week, not by individual contracted hours.

annual leave hasn't been mentioned though - you do know that you earn additional annual leave for all the hours you achieve between your contract and equivalent full time hours (40hrs/37.5hrs). ?

Non contractual overtime doesn't accrue holiday. If the OP wants to accrue holiday and is regularly working more than 20 hours and/ or is being required to do so, she should ask for her contract to be amended to reflect that.

Amending the contract is not something I fancy doing. I can be reasonably flexible with working hours term time but work part time as I wouldn't be able to cover childcare during school holidays. At the minute the extra hours are because we are busy and people are on holiday. Im seeing this more as favour storing at the minute. It cant hurt !

Flowery, if that's the case why don't more employers give short hour contracts then expect staff to do more hours on top?

My employer is doing this to my colleague and I, expecting more hours but making it clear no extra holiday will be accrued.

Because if it is contractual overtime, ie regular and expected, that wouldn't work anyway. For most employers, they know they need x amount of hours each week a contract for much less wouldn't work.

If you are regularly doing x hours and are required to do so, then it becomes contractual (whether it's written in your contract or not).

short hour contracts are common in retail, especially food retail

ot is generally single rate unless over 39 hours
no additional holiday is accrued

and they are very careful to vary the hours and occassionally drop the OT to nil so you cannot claim for your contract hours to be upped on the basis that you have been working the same hours for a number of weeks

suits the employers but not many of the staff as the ot is expected and if you say no....