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Overtime pay
[ch 4: pages 113-114]For overtime pay to be due there must be a contractual obligation to work the overtime in return for pay. The agreement can be express or implied (including through custom and practice):
A group of room attendants worked cleaning hotel rooms. Their workload stopped them taking their full contractual rest break and instead 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 that the employees were asked to work overtime, or any detailed evidence of when, how often and for how long they worked the extra hours to complete their tasks. The EAT dismissed the claim, saying that the fact that the employees had no practical choice but to work extra hours to keep their jobs did not make the overtime compulsory, or “required” by their 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
Where a union is recognised, overtime rates are likely to have been negotiated through collective bargaining.
There have been important changes to the law on overtime and calculating holiday pay. These are explained on page 128.
Many workplaces operate policies such as “time off in lieu” (TOIL) or “flexitime”, allowing workers to “bank” time or take time off work, making it up later. This type of arrangement is entirely a matter for contractual agreement between employer and employee, subject to basic minimum statutory rights, for example, as to pay and hours. Where unions are recognised, a collective agreement may have been reached. Employees should be careful not to build up large amounts of unused “flexitime”. 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” when the employment ended.