For example, if several co-workers are also working unwanted overtime, you can suggest that your employer hire someone else to take care of the overtime. It can be cheaper to hire a new person than to pay several additional employees. The EIT base code does not contain specific rules on the number of hours per day that can be worked. Nevertheless, employers should try to avoid long working days, as these can endanger an employee`s health. In the Basic Code and in national legislation, there is an obligation to create a safe working system that must prevent excessively long shifts or continuous work. This is due to health and safety risks arising from excessive working hours. In many countries, national legislation will contain provisions on either the maximum daily working time or the minimum daily rest period and rest days. It should be recalled that ILO Convention No. 1 (1921) required the adoption of a maximum of 8 hours. An employer should take into account guaranteed and non-guaranteed overtime in the calculation of public holiday pay.

If voluntary overtime is a “normal wage”, an employer may also need to take this into account when calculating vacation pay. If you`re having trouble with unwanted overtime, talk to your supervisor if you think you can. You should also seek advice from your union if you have one. Other people in your workplace may be in the same position as you, and a collective approach may be the best way forward. If you want to become a member of a union but don`t know which one to join, use our Union Finder tool. Your employer may discriminate against you when trying to get you to work overtime, and you can`t because: Your employer must have a clear policy on how overtime is requested, authorized, and recorded, and how overtime pay is calculated. The Working Time Organisation Act 1997 on working time and rest periods does not apply to all employees. It does not apply to guards, defence forces, employees who control their own working hours or family employees on farms or in private homes. The Youth Protection (Employment) Act 1996 regulates the working time of young people under the age of 18. Unlike the contractually agreed 48-hour provision, there is no way to average the hours around the 60-hour limit. The basic code is very clear: an employee cannot exceed 60 hours per week, except in exceptional circumstances, which is allowed by national legislation, regulated by a collective agreement and appropriate safety precautions are in place.

This is an absolute weekly and hourly limit. For example, your employer may offer overtime if the workload suddenly increases and they do not have enough staff to meet the demand due to illness. Some employers choose to offer compensation to employees if they work more hours than specified in the employment contract. This is generally referred to as overtime pay. If your hours of work are not specified, your employer must comply with the law set out in section 17 of the Act. Your employment contract must state what your normal working hours and days are, which may include or exclude work on Sundays. Whether this counts as overtime depends on your employment contract. Your employment contract should state whether you need to work overtime and set the rates of pay if you need to be paid for it.

Some areas of employment fall under registered employment regulation orders and contracts of employment and may have higher rates for overtime than for normal hours of work. It is a breach of contract to change your working conditions without your consent. If you are an hourly paid employee, you must be paid for all overtime worked at the request of the employer. You should receive the contract hourly rate for overtime worked, but in any case, your average base wage (i.e., your salary before considering improvements such as “one and a half hours”) must be at least the national minimum wage for each “wage reference period.” However, in certain circumstances, employers may reject your request to set you at the times indicated by bands. The UK Working Time Ordinance allows the statutory maximum working time of 48 hours per week to be exceeded in one week, provided that the average number of hours over 17 weeks (the reference period) does not exceed 48 hours per week. First, check your employment contract for more details on how overtime is worked and what the rates of pay should be. If you don`t have a written contract, you may find the article on employment contracts useful. Every year in February, the TUC argues against unpaid excessive overtime with Work Your Proper Hours Day to mark the fact that unpaid overtime for the average worker is equivalent to not being paid for the work they have done since the beginning of the year to date. Instead of paying for overtime, some employers offer “free time” instead. This is agreed between you and your employer and every time you take off, it will usually be at a time that suits the employer. The 48 hours worked do not include annual leave, sick or maternity leave, adoption leave or parental leave. The legislation also includes provisions for night workers, minimum breaks and rest periods.

There are also special provisions regarding Sunday work – see below. If you`re not sure how many hours to work each week, check your contract first. It should say: If you refuse overtime and they have been employed for less than 2 years, your employer could threaten to fire you. If you have a disability or long-term health problem, your employer may be required to make “appropriate adjustments.” This may include changes to your working hours. Find out if your employer needs to make adjustments for you. Maybe so. For example, in some institutions, employers may offer overtime exclusively to migrant workers, because they feel they need less free time than local workers (because they are far from their loved ones, want to save money to go home, etc.). However, local workers may find this discriminatory as it prevents them from working overtime and earning more money. Therefore, employers should ensure that all employees have the opportunity to work overtime. Similarly, overtime should not be given preferential treatment for workers who were previously willing to work overtime, as this could lead to the interpretation that there is an obligation to work overtime in order to obtain a future opportunity to work overtime. If you work with a short-time working contract and you are constantly working more hours per week than your contract provides, you can ask your employer to change the terms of the contract.

You have the right to be placed on an hourly band that better reflects the number of hours you have worked over a 12-month period. If you`re not sure if you`re working more than the legal limit, check how many hours you`re working. ETI members are not expected to ensure that their suppliers actively shorten the work week, although they want to encourage suppliers to do so and prefer suppliers who have negotiated a shorter work week with their employees, for example. EIT members generally set the required working hours at less than 48 hours; for those who do not, the recommendation would also apply to employees in their own activities. The international standards (ILO Conventions) on which the Basic Code is based set 48 hours as the maximum duration of the normal working week, but also recognize the importance of the transition to a shorter working week, overtime and, where appropriate and achievable in the national context, for the health and well-being of workers. This may still be a long way off in many countries, and reducing working time to 48 hours will continue to be a priority for many EIT members. Conventions on working time require, subject to various exceptions, that working time be limited to eight hours per day and forty-eight hours per week. The only deviation from this is when an employer has promised to pay its employees a certain minimum period, if an hourly employee or a non-exempt employee is called as a wage payment contract. Giving or not giving the promised wages, including wage benefits, is entirely the responsibility of each employer. “Promised wages” can be an hourly rate above the minimum wage, overtime pay for certain working days instead of the legal obligation to pay overtime pay for hours worked of more than 40 in a work week, shift differential wage, commissions, bonuses, piecework wage, production wage, weekly wage, monthly salary, living expenses or mileage costs. “Salary benefits” are benefits such as vacation pay, sick leave, jury tax, and vacation pay. If an employer promises to pay these wages, it must pay all promised wages, including wage benefits, that accrue to its employees based on the policies, agreements or practices it has established.

And according to N.C.G.S. 95-25.13(2), an employer shall: “Provide its employees with employment practices and policies regarding wages promised in writing or by means of a published notice kept in a place accessible to its employees.” Unless otherwise specified in the employment contract, an employer does not have to pay overtime to a part-time employee until he has worked the same number of hours as a full-time employee. You don`t have to work overtime if you could prove that you would earn less than the national minimum wage with overtime. This means that your employer agrees to give you time off instead of paying you for overtime you worked. .