55 hr week

[malificent7]

So I'm nhs, new...2 months in this post. AHP. Love this job dearly at this hospital. I'm contracted to do 37.5 hours a week . This week i will have worked 55 hours by Sunday. My manager says it will be less hours in subsequent weeks to spread the load.
Anyone else experienced this....would you ask for more even distribution? I'm also often working weekends, both days, have to ask for AL to get weekend off. But my manager is so lovely and this is rare so I don't want to leave or let her down. Obviously we are very short staffed!

Is that's 55 hours paid or 37.5 paid with unpaid overtime?

Not overtime...just the way the rota works is that all hours= squashed into 1 week.

I would be pushing back. Very important that you indicate now what you are prepared to work. Your contracted hours are 37.5.

37.5 hours per week - £13.85 per hour
55 hours per week = £9.46 per hour (less than minimum wage)

I find that usually focuses the mind.

No wonder your boss is so nice!

If you work over 48 hours in a week you’re supposed to sign a waiver.
it’s a health and safety thing, how are you getting any decent rest?

I work for the nhs on a 4 week rota and do some longer weeks than others, it evens out over the 4 weeks. I think it's pretty common when trying to cover what is needed. However I would not put up with working every weekend so I would definitely bring that up!

Make sure you track all your hours and as @Peekachoochoo says work out your actual hourly rate for each pay period (month).

Also track your rest periods (11 continuous hours each 24 hour period and either a continuous 24 hours every 7 days or continuous 48 hours in a 14 day period).

If at the end of 3 months you have been paid less than NMW, not getting rest breaks and/or working excessively over 37.5 hours email your manager and cc to HR setting out where they are not either complying with employment law or your contract.

Don't be caught out by the nice boss routine.

Weekend shifts should be shared out equally between staff so do not be shy about asking. If you don't mention it there'll be the "I put Malificent down for the weekends as she doesn't mind" frame of mind and you'll always be working them.

Once worked 12 weeks without a weekend off, requested one and given it, only to be asked by 3 other members of staff to swap as they didn't think it was fair as a single person I was having a weekend off, and they had families. I didn't swap.

It gets better...i have now been allocated a night shift the night before my annual leave....so on one of my annual leave days I will be too tired to do the much loved and planned for outings my family adores...so i am definitely pushing back on that.

Take a firm stand malificent !

Surely your A/L starts at midnight of the day you have off- not 7am or whenever you finish the night shift???

I'd raise this that its not possible- because you are on leave!

My annual leave starts at 7am on the date of leave, so yes I can do on call or night shift the day before annual leave. It's annoying but unfortunately it's life.

I also regularly have a 7 day period with 60 working hours. But that balances out with a 24 hour week and every so often a 12 hour week, so over 16 weeks it averages out at 40 hours for me.

The only thing about your job that doesn't sound normal to me is the weekends. Ours are shared out and while I have occasionally done stints of working 10 in a row this is due to covering leave or sickness (need a certain number of people to work) plus occasional overtime or toil to progress a certain project.
Why are you working so many weekends?