Getting nothing for overtime

LegacyUser

I'm still f*cking fuming over work.

Since early last year, the bosses have been telling us that they may occasionally need us to do overtime, stay back an hour here or there if there's something which has to be done. And if we stay back, we can then get that time off later in the week or when things calm down. Just say it to them, and there won't be a problem.

Between September and November, I had to have done about 20 hours overtime to get a big project finished. But after we were finished that project, I had other projects to do which had been put on hold because of the bigger one. Fine. Thats alright. I'm a team player, and if the work has to be done, it has to be done. I want to keep my job, and I didn't want the business to close. So thats a sacrifice I had to make.

Just before Christmas, we were organising how many days holidays we had left to use before the end of the year. Turned out me and the other employee (the place I work has 2 bosses, and 2 employees) miscounted because we forgot Good Friday or something and booked off one extra day than we had by accident, which meant we would have had to come in for one day between Christmas and New Year. I was thinking of mentioning the time I was owed (the 20 hours) and see if I could get the day off, but the bosses decided that, because they couldn't afford to give us a Christmas bonus, they'd let us have that day off. Fair enough. Was happy with that.

Since the beginning of January, I was put on another huge project. Between January and February, I decided to take a note of my overtime hours. Because of overtime, and I even worked one saturday, I did 3 days worth of overtime. Constantly being told I'd get some time off when it was finished because of the overtime. So after I finished that project, I had a few smaller ones to do which had been put on hold, so started on them. Now, the pressure is off, so I asked for next Friday off because of my overtime. Boss said thats grand.

So we're chatting away, and he's going through what I'll be doing for the next few weeks, and he notes how I'm not too busy next week because we're waiting on some things to come through. So I say "Well, because of the *big project*, I actually have about 3 days worth of overtime done, so if I'm not busy next week maybe it'd be better if I took 2 days off next week while the opportunity is there"

He seemed a bit shocked, but said something like we may be getting new projects in, or the other boss might have something for me to do. So I said that's grand. I didn't need the second day off, just thought it'd be better to take it if things were quiet. So we continued on with the conversation.

Then yesterday morning, he called me up to his office and asked me to close the door. I didn't know what was going on. He asked how did I calculate the 3 days. I said I had been writing it in my dairy just as a rough guide, that it's not like I'm going to be picky over every 15 minutes or anything, but just that, because I knew it was such a big project, it'd be better if I kept a track of my hours on it. He asked me if I took into consideration the day off around Christmas that they gave us. I said I hadn't, I'd forgotten about that. But fair is fair, I don't mind counting the saturday I worked as the day around Christmas. Then he started on at me about how we all have to pull together, we need to do all this overtime to keep the business afloat, the business is struggling, he doesn't calculate how much overtime he puts in etc.

I told him that the reason I did the overtime in the first place was to get the project finished but I did so under the assumption that I'd get the time back when things slowed down, and the only reason I asked for the 2 days off next week was because he told me that there wasn't a lot for me to do next week. I also said that I never once complained about having to do the overtime. And again, he starts on about how we need to do the overtime in order to get invoices out etc. Then he said that the other boss has some stuff for me to do now so to go over to him.

I'm seriously still raging. I don't mind doing overtime and not getting the time back if thats what it takes, but to be treated like this is really f*cking me off. Not since I started have I complained about doing overtime, and most of the overtime I've done over the past year and a half I never asked for, because it was only bits here and there. But come on... 3 days worth of overtime in 7 weeks? I'm not out of line asking for 2 of the days off. I know I'm not. I probably wouldn't even have asked for the third day off.

I know I set the precedent by doing free overtime before, and I know the economy is in trouble and business is hard etc, but am I out of line? What should I do? There's only 2 bosses and 2 employees here, so I don't want bad tension about the place

shoegirl

Its a hard one. My company specifies in our contracts that we are expected to do free overtime as required.

In reality if "as required" is every week or even every day, then the place is under resourced and there just isn't enough staff.
To be honest, there are two answers:
1. keep a timesheet and submit to management every week highlighting the overtime
2. don't do it

Its a difficult one. It does sound that your projects are badly understaffed though.

LegacyUser

Thats the thing, I didn't mind doing a bit of overtime here and there, I only took account of it the last few weeks because I knew I'd be doing loads of it. But I did the overtime under the assumption that I'd get most of that time back. Getting one day off for 3 days overtime is just plain wrong as far as I'm concerned, and making me feel guilty for asking for it off just makes it feel like they're taking advantage. My current plan is to just make sure that if I do half an hour overtime, to organise half an hour off later that week at the same time, and not let it build up as much

shoegirl

Its same in my place, we get NOTHING back for overtime unless it goes over the 48 hour limit on working time act. Basically it means that if you work a 48 hour week every week you cannot demand anything back.

We also have free gratia (to the employer) "on call" duties. This you do tend to get back.

In practice however, we generally prefer to just happen to be out of range or dead battery at the time of the call. There is no such thing as a free lunch and the company has 24x7 cover, we shouldn't really be on call anyway.

(We're also being told our jobs are "at risk" by the way - in our places speak that means the decision is already made but they are following the letter of the law to try to get out of paying redundancy to anybody who leaves before the official 30 days notice is given. I've yet to come across a sneakier, more underhand employer but sounds like yours is not far off).