Hourly pay and overtime

[Yearn]

I'm paid hourly, my contract guarantees 40 hours plus unpaid breaks.

Each day my shift is supposed to end at 4:15p but most days I have to stay an extra 10 - 20 minutes to complete all the tasks that need to be done.

Every other place I have worked that hasn't been an issue, I would just sign out with correct time and be paid for it. In my current job I am not paid for that time.

Am I not entitled to be paid for that time? I've already worked 1 hour unpaid so far this week.

Everyone else leaves at their end time meaning tasks don't get finished but that leaves the morning shift playing catch up and I just can't do that.

If it matters I work in a cafe/farmshop.

Should I bring it up with my boss?

If you are 'allowed' and it's normal practice to just leave at your finish time and leave jobs undone for the morning, effectively you are choosing to stay on voluntarily so why would you be entitled to be paid? I doubt your boss will agree to pay you overtime in those circumstances - at most they might agree you can leave early or take a longer lunch hour on a quiet day in compensation.

I do get what you are saying but most employers (particularly small businesses where profit margin is already on a knife edge anyway) who do pay overtime have to manage it quite carefully to prevent huge bills being run up, I'm surprised your previous employer just paid you whatever hours you say you worked without question. You sound very honest and diligent but most places I have worked have had the odd pisstaker who if they'd had that freedom absolutely would have claimed they worked an hour extra per day every day, whether or not there were jobs that needed doing and regardless of whether they were actually doing said jobs or pissing around chatting and on their phones!

I think rather than going in with 'I'm entitled to be paid for this' line, I would try and talk to your boss about the fact that there are always some jobs left to be done at the end of your shift, why that is (does s/he have an unreasonable expectation that more things will be done than there are hours available, do they expect/allow you to stop serving customers earlier to get the end of day jobs done, do they just not know these jobs exist/not care about them, are others not pulling their weight). Then I'd say that you've noticed the norm is to just leave the jobs for the morning shift but that causes XYZ further problems, and so could your contract be amended so you finish at 16.30 rather than 16.15 and be paid accordingly? You could offer to trial it and/or say that if on any day there aren't jobs to be done, that time could be 'banked' for any particularly busy days or early starts or whatever? Basically just take a conciliatory approach but understand that its their business and so if they only want people to work their paid hours and prefer to leave jobs undone than pay extra, that's their prerogative (unless the jobs are things which actively impact health and safety of others I guess, but that's a different issue altogether)...

Thank you so much for the advice, I really appreciate it!

I have always worked for small independent restaurants (6 of them) and they have all had the same policy - you sign in when you arrive and you sign out when you're done. Because times are tracked you can see if someone is consistently signing out later than is typical and taking the piss. Generally I think most people want to get home as soon as possible, I definitely do, but I can't stand leaving jobs not done just so we can leave at a set time.

Like at my last place, we'd always finish between 6p-6:30p, depending on how busy we had been. If there was a rare occasion where it was 6:45p it would be because we had to deep clean something that couldn't been done until all customers had left for example.

Tonight, at my current job, I was supposed to leave at 4:30p. My boss was still taking orders from customers at 4:25p, meaning there were several jobs that had been done that had to be redone and others that couldn't be done until they had gone. Instead I had to stay behind until 5:30p to finish all of the closing tasks. At every other place I've worked I would have been paid for that hour but here I won't be. Which means my hourly rate is below NMW this week.

It is important tasks that aren't being finished. Last night, whoever worked left dirty pots and pans, floors not swept and mopped, fridges not cleaned, tables not cleaned, toilets uncleaned. Then there are not so important tasks, like sidework - cutlery polished, glasses polished, salt/pepper/sugar pots dirty and empty, cakes plated up, etc. that I also had to do this morning in addition to my opening tasks which meant I had fallen behind before 10am. I do realise these might not sound important to someone who has never worked in a restaurant but trust me, they are!

I understand it's their business and they can run it how they want but I am just really struggling to see how this is an acceptable way to treat an employee. I wouldn't ever say I'm entitled to pay to my boss, I would bring it up politely but I just wanted to know if it was reasonable.

I think I'm probably just not the right person for this job. This issue combined with the general filth and disorganisation stresses me out beyond belief.