Part Time Overtime Hours

[Meg888]

Can anyone advise me on this; if someone is contracted to work 30 hours per week, and works hours over this, are they to be paid at time and a half? I've been told they should only receive time and half once they've peaked full time hours of 39? So normal pay per hour up to 39, then time and half for every hour thereafter. I've tried looking online - and can't seem to find anything.

[EcclesCake]

What does their contract say?

[emeritus]

My understanding is if the Full time hours for the job are 39 then extra hours worked by part time staff would be paid at normal hourly rates up to the Full time hours. Then overtime rates for any hours worked beyond that.

[emeritus]

Confirms that here

https://www.gov.uk/overtime-your-rights/parttime-workers

[Meg888]

Thank you. They work 30 hours per week, as a rule they would not normally be paid over time (as they're managerial) but they are working a fair amount of hours. The full time staff's hours as a rule are 39, so they should only receive overtime when exceeding these amount of hours if I understand your answer correctly Emeritus?

[EcclesCake]

What does their contract say?

If they are in a grade that does not receive overtime payments and that is consistent across both full and part time staff of that grade then that is the deal.

[emeritus]

As Eccles advises it depends what their contract of employment states. An employer may choose not to pay overtime to some managerial staff and that will be written into their contract. If they are eligible to claim overtime then yes it will be normal time until they have worked the same number of hours that a full time staff member works before overtime rates are triggered.

[Meg888]

Hi thank you both for your advice. I'm unsure yet what their contract says, I will have to check it out, though I do believe it was agreed prior to them taking the job that overtime would be payable to them.

[EcclesCake]

Checking the contract should be your first course of action.

On one hand you say that usually OT isn't usually paid to Managerial staff but then go on to say you think OT was agreed prior to them accepting the job.

What did they sign up to?

[Meg888]

It's a bit tricky, as I say most managerial staff are full time, but this one's an exception. I don't recall seeing it in her contract however, there was an email between said staff member and MD and I'm certain overtime was agreed in that, so it's not a straightforward one. She's a very difficult member of staff also, so I'm striving to be armed with the facts etc. before I mention it. She's racking up overtime (un-necessarily I feel) as she agreed to work 30 hours, but wants to work 39 and she was refused (the job does not need to be full time) so she's just staying late, claiming to work from home - working her day off/weekends - she's on a busy project at the moment, but it's not a long term and I feel she's just wasting company time and money. I am responsible for her pay, so I want to make sure we are paying her correctly.

[EcclesCake]

That is a different situation entirely as it sounds like unauthorised overtime.

What is your company policy regarding OT? If company policy is to agree OT with management in advance then you have no problem.

This sounds like more of a performance and attitude issue to me and as you realise needs addressing soon by her line manager.

[LyndaB]

The company I work for only pays overtime rates of time and a half if you work over 45 hours - regardless of your contracted hours.

[boxtops]

It does depend entirely on your company's policy on extra hours - let's distinguish this from overtime, or what's in the individual's contract. If we work extra authorised hours at our place, we get paid those hours at our normal rate as extra hours, or we take time off in lieu - there is no overtime rate.

I've been in a situation like yours and it is difficult to manage - despite saying to the person that they needed to work their hours only, they claimed they couldn't fulfil the job in their contracted hours. You might want to consider coming to a compromise, that you will pay the extra hours worked to date (but only at basic rate) on the understanding that it stops now, and you won't authorise any further claims for extra hours. It's your authorisation which is important, don't forget it's your department's budget which is paying for this.

Do you have union representation where you work? It's worth discussing with them beforehand, so you have their perspective in case it blows up when you refuse to authorise any more OT.