Suing the boss for unpaid overtime

[patslatt]

Under US federal law,hours of employment have been regulated,since the Great Depression in the 1930s I think. In the present era of non-unionised private sector workers,many corporations and businesses conveniently forget that regulation,pressuring employees to work unpaid overtime on a regular basis.But In recent years,they got a blunt reminder as the lawyers went after the corporations in class action lawsuits and won cases worth billions in back pay from companies that are household names.

What has this got to do with Ireland? In the past week alone, I have met people in advertising,IT,civil engineering and finance who have been pressured to work unscheduled overtime hours. Two of the four were called in to work on days off,another worked extra hours because the boss often requires it and yet another regularly works late to handle the volume of financial loans. In the latter two case,the excessive workload should have been dealt with by recruiting additional staff.

Are there any Irish lawyers out there who want to emulate the American lawyers?

[PaintingMedium]

I doubt it! Everyone is forced to do overtime, forced in a sly kind of way. They encourage that extra bit of work, it makes you a team player, if others are doing it, and you refuse, it makes you look really bad, and management will hold it against you. I have worked overtime on plenty of occassions and refused on other occassions. The punishment is not obvious but in subtle ways, rewards or time off might not be given, those holiday hours you were looking for might be booked already, that day off for a birthday, forget about it!Changing your shift might have been easy before it, but if you refuse to do overtime, then the shift change suddenly becomes inpossible!

People do unpaid overtime because they know if they dont, a grudge will be held against them, and whilst the punishment will not be blatant and obvious, it comes in these different forms. Managers do a huge amount of unpaid overtime and they figure, if they do it, then the staff should do it too!

I suppose, how do you work out whats owed? If I was thinking of myself, when I worked, unpaid overtime was usually half an hour after work cleaning up and fixing the place up. I did that for a good few years. When it comes to busy times like xmas, they expect you to work even more, so it could be an hour after you finish when you get out. When you ask about getting paid this, the manager or supervisor will moan saying how they are not getting paid for it either, so you either risk it and become singled out, or you shrug your shoulders and be a "team player"

God, I hate English retail companies!

[Bom]

It depends on the terms of the individual's contract of employment. The contract may be in writing or may be simply a verbal agreement understood between the parties, or established through custom and practice over time (implying agreement to the terms). The terms and conditions of your employment must be given to you in writing on request (they have a few weeks to get this together). Any conditions relating to payment of overtime should be clearly stated in this document.

If you had been paid overtime previously but have since found that the company are less and less inclined to honour that contract commitment then you should bring it up with them. If you dont make any headway you can bring a case against them under the Payment of Wages Act. One core principle in employment legislation internationally which is relevant here is the idea that there can be no variation without consideration.....it is inherently unfair to apply variation to contracts without an accompanying 'considertion' (usually financial). Also, no party to a contract can unilaterally alter the terms of that contract - neither you nor your employer - it can only be altered by agreement.

Check out www.citizensinformation.ie

Good luck!

[patslatt]

I doubt it! Everyone is forced to do overtime, forced in a sly kind of way. They encourage that extra bit of work, it makes you a team player, if others are doing it, and you refuse, it makes you look really bad, and management will hold it against you. I have worked overtime on plenty of occassions and refused on other occassions. The punishment is not obvious but in subtle ways, rewards or time off might not be given, those holiday hours you were looking for might be booked already, that day off for a birthday, forget about it!Changing your shift might have been easy before it, but if you refuse to do overtime, then the shift change suddenly becomes inpossible!

People do unpaid overtime because they know if they dont, a grudge will be held against them, and whilst the punishment will not be blatant and obvious, it comes in these different forms. Managers do a huge amount of unpaid overtime and they figure, if they do it, then the staff should do it too!

I suppose, how do you work out whats owed? If I was thinking of myself, when I worked, unpaid overtime was usually half an hour after work cleaning up and fixing the place up. I did that for a good few years. When it comes to busy times like xmas, they expect you to work even more, so it could be an hour after you finish when you get out. When you ask about getting paid this, the manager or supervisor will moan saying how they are not getting paid for it either, so you either risk it and become singled out, or you shrug your shoulders and be a "team player"

God, I hate English retail companies!

In the USA,all overtime must be paid for,even in the case of managers and supervisors who lack discretion over their hours. Managers who have the discretion to vary their hours according to the needs of the job are exempt from the overtime regulation.

[NotDevsSon]

In an old job I had the company NEVER paid overtime. They said they would give time off in lieu, but invariably would refuse to give time off at the time suitable for the employee, for example, giving people who were owed a week five Wednesdays off, knowing that they could not go anywhere with one day off in mid-week.

We all got fed off with this and 30 of us marched up to our manager's office on VERY busy Monday morning and said "We have had enough of this. You owe all of us two weeks in lieu. We are taking it now. Bye bye." He nearly had kittens, saying how the company couldn't cope with 30 staff disappearing at once, etc. So I pipped in "OK. We won't take our 2 weeks. You will pay us our overtime." At that point the manager almost had heart failure and began saying "no. no. no. We cannot do that."

So I took out my mobile and began dialing a number. The manager stared at me. "What are you doing?" So I said, "Well if you won't pay the overtime and you won't give people usable days in lieu, I'm ringing my solicitor to sue you." At which point everyone else chipped in saying "can we talk to him too?"

Within a couple of minutes of starting to dial the phone (I was actually dialing a friend in the next door office! ) the company had agreed that all days in lieu would be given at times that suited the employees, and that if the company could not afford to give time off in lieu because of work pressures, overtime would be paid. The following Thursday all our wage packets included the overtime!!! (They already owed me two weeks holidays so I took them and paid for a nice holiday with the overtime!)

[bobbysands81]

Under US federal law,hours of employment have been regulated,since the Great Depression in the 1930s I think. In the present era of non-unionised private sector workers,many corporations and businesses conveniently forget that regulation,pressuring employees to work unpaid overtime on a regular basis.But In recent years,they got a blunt reminder as the lawyers went after the corporations in class action lawsuits and won cases worth billions in back pay from companies that are household names.

What has this got to do with Ireland? In the past week alone, I have met people in advertising,IT,civil engineering and finance who have been pressured to work unscheduled overtime hours. Two of the four were called in to work on days off,another worked extra hours because the boss often requires it and yet another regularly works late to handle the volume of financial loans. In the latter two case,the excessive workload should have been dealt with by recruiting additional staff.

Are there any Irish lawyers out there who want to emulate the American lawyers?

Personally I'd love to see the State keep the labour laws for it's own staff.

Every single Government Department breaks the law in relation to the Working Time Act.