Unpaid Overtime

[benf31]

I work in the tax department for a firm of Accountants. We normally work all Saturdays in January for which we were paid time-in-lieu however this year, since July, there has been an overtime ban in place however we are still expected to work the Saturdays in January for nothing. We have been told by the Management that there is no presure for us to come in on those Saturdays however if we don't a report will be filled at Head Office to that effect which will then be used when taking in to account future promotion or pay rises.
We have been told that it will be worth our while in the long term but my biggest fear is that we do the extra hours and then find ourselves redundant in February. Can anyone advise me please on what I should do?

[buildersmate]

In my experience this is always an issue when when works for the big accountancy firms (and probably the little ones too) - you are expected to work incredibly hard for peanuts on the offchance that if you make it through to Partner, you are made for life.
Your contract would say something about this. It'll probably say something like ' your nominal hours of work are x to z however on occasions you are expected to work the hours necessary to deliver your responsibilities. I would seek to negotiate your time in lieu now - before the evil date in January arrives.