Advice on handing in notice.

LegacyUser

Hi there,

Just looking for some advice. I started in a company earlier in the year, and handed in my notice at the start of december as i found a better job.

Part of the contract (although im not sure if its in writing) was that i would get a phone as part of the deal. This was agreed before i started. When I started he said I would have to pay for the phone, which i was fine with.

After a few weeks, he said he would actually pay for it. So now since I left I asked him what I should do with the phone, he said I have to give it back. Is this correct?

( i actually have 2 of these phones as the company changed network receiving the name phone i had previously (high end phone))

On average i worked 45-50 hours a week on a 37.5 hour week basic with no extra pay. I heard off one of the guys in there, after we both agreed to work a sunday (and approx 120 hours the previous 2 weeks), that he was receiving extra money for working these hours. Is there anything I can do about this? I was happy to keep to the phone knowing that he was getting money for all the overtime he was doing, but i done the same if not more.

It might sound a bit petty but I dont want to be taken for a ride..

Thanks,

Advice2222333

Bandana boy

Did the company pay for the Phone in the end ?

If so it is their phone and you will have to return it ,you might have a case to keep the number and have the bill transferred to your account.

The terms you negotiated for your work and what another person negotiated are not really relevant in returning company property

LegacyUser

OK Thanks. Just wanted to make sure.

But he doesnt have a different contract regarding overtime.

Thanks for the advice!

tatli_lokma

usually most contracts for salaried workers has a line in there that O/t is only with prior approval of management and is at the discretion of management. It could simply be that he negotiated for the payment, and you didn't. There is no entitlement to receive pay for o/t. He might have had more confidence in asking for payment or he wouldn't do it. I know it seems unfair that you got nowt and he got paid, but that is just one of those life lessons - next time, speak up for yourself. Don't let yourself be a doormat - if you have already put in more than your contracted hours and are then being asked to to even more, make sure you speak up for yourself.

Having said all that, although there is no entitlement to extra pay for o/t, if you are not receiving any monetary payment for the hours, you must at least be given time off in lieu of those hours or a reasonable pay increase. I'm not sure what the timeline is on the phone, and I'm not sure legally where they would stand if they argued it, but the boss might argue that them taking on the payment of the phone was the 'increase'. As I say, legally you would need to check that out.

Regarding the Sunday work, normal practices are for you to get some sort of premium for that - now this premium can be as little as €1 more for the day or at the very least time off in lieu.

citizens information wrote:

Sunday working
If you do Sunday work your entitlement to extra pay may be agreed between you and your employer. Under the Organisation of Working Time Act, if there is no agreement about your pay, your employer must give you one or more of the following for Sunday working:

•A reasonable allowance
•A reasonable pay increase
•Reasonable paid time off work
What is reasonable depends on all the circumstances. It is a matter for negotiation between you and your employer and, where applicable, your trade union. Some guidance may be obtained by referring, where possible, to an agreement applying to comparable employees elsewhere in similar employment.

The Labour Relations Commission has published a Code of Practice for Sunday working in the Retail Trade (pdf). A new Code of Practice on Sunday Working for workers covered by ERO sectors is to be prepared by the Labour Relations Commission.

Overtime
Overtime is work done outside normal working hours. There is no statutory obligation on employers in Ireland to pay employees higher rates, for example, double time, for work completed in overtime. You must, however, receive at the very least your normal hourly rate of pay for overtime. Certain sectors of employment were covered by Employment Regulation Orders and Registered Employment Agreements and may have higher rates of pay for overtime.

the above is on the citizens information site http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/employment_rights_and_conditions/hours_of_work/working_week.html

So bearing the above in mind, whilst you do not necessarily have to get paid for extra work, you should have been given time off in lieu. To my mind this is a seperate issue to the phone, and linking them will only confuse the issue. The easiest thing for you to do would have been to agree on a figure of hours owed to you, and then take these off your notice period. So if you haven't already left, I would go down this route and basically take the hours they owe you off before you leave. If you have already left employment, then you will have to make a claim under the payment of wages act via NERA. For this to be successful you will need some sort of proof that you did indeed work the hours you claim, so make sure you have emails or some proof. If you have no proof it will literally be your word against your employers. I know it is a hard pill to swallow - same thing happened me a few years back and I had to chase overtime I was due. In the end it just got so stressful that wasn't worth the hassle to me. I had a new job and, despite being owed a few hundred euro, I decided to walk away as it was just causing me negativity and headaches and I just wanted to move on and make the most of my new job.

Lesson to learn - next time get extra hours formally approved, get it in writing, have the balls to ask for payment and don't do quite so much - in some companies the more you give the more they expect and they never thank you for it. Know your own worth, or no one else will.