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Overtime pay
[ch 4: page 98]Overtime pay is only due where there is a contractual agreement to pay overtime. This can be express or implied (see Chapter 3). For example:
A group of room attendants worked cleaning hotel rooms. Their work volume stopped them taking their full contractual rest break and they worked significant unpaid overtime. A collective agreement said that overtime was “voluntary” but that “employees may be required to work overtime at short notice and cooperation in this matter is necessary”.
There was no evidence of the employees being asked to work overtime, and no detailed evidence of when, how often and for how long they worked extra hours to complete their tasks. The EAT dismissed the claim. The EAT said that the fact that the employees had no practical choice but to work extra hours in order to keep their jobs did not make the overtime compulsory, or “required” by the employer. There was no contractual obligation to work the overtime and so no right to be paid for it.
Blair v Hotel Solutions London Limited [2012] UKEAT/0412/11/DM
In Vision Events (UK) Limited v Paterson [2013] UKEATS/0015/13/BI, the EAT ruled that there was no implied right to be paid for accrued unused “flexi-hours” at the end of the employment.
In 2014, there were important changes to the law on the treatment of overtime when calculating holiday pay. For more information see page 106.