O/T

M

Mister Me

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My partner is working in a multi national co. and they are trying to enforce extra shifts. They are saying that everyone must work 5 extra shifts per year (12 hr shifts) and that they are only paying flat rate for this, i.e. no overtime. They claim that anyone who does not go along with this will be sacked. Surely this cannot be legal......
 
I understand there is a general principle that the employer cannot unilaterally change the terms & conditions of employment without agreement or negotiation. Does the contract of employment cover this scenario of extra shifts at all?
 
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There is no legislation that covers overtime but the following extract from the employee rights website is relevant.

"Am I entitled to Overtime Pay from my employer?
In general there is no employment rights legislation covering overtime. While the Organisation of Working Act, 1997 regulates rest breaks and maximum weekly working hours it does not cover overtime payment. Employees do not have a statutory entitlement to overtime pay. Policy in relation to overtime pay may be decided by the employer and agreed as part of the employee's terms and conditions of employment or through collective agreements negotiated between employers and employee representatives."

www.entemp.ie/employment/....htm#terms

Summary dismissals are generally only allowed where there has been an act of gross misconduct. IMHO, it would be stretching things to believe that a refusal to work additional hours over and above the standard working week could be regarded as gross misconduct.

The following extract from the Employee Rights website may be relevant.

www.entemp.ie/employment/...#dismissal
 
ot

I figure what they are doing is making you work the full 39 hour week rather than the 3x12hrs=36.

I know that is what they do in some multinational factories, they make you work 1 extra 12hrs every month so an extra 3 hrs per week so 39hrs per week.

This is ok as it was agreed when the initial contract of employment was agreedat the begining for a 39 hrweek i.e. they nev changed it was there from the begining. and as the statutory rate of hours is 39p/w they dont need to pay a premium wage
 
The shift presently is a 3 on 3 off 12 hr structure rotating weekly days - nights which works out at more than 39 hrs per week, with the balance being added to holidays rather than paid as salary. The extra shifts are outside of what is contracted and then surely unenforcable. Correct??????!!!!
 
The answers in the question

I've worked shifts for years. 3 shifts, 4 shifts, even 5 shifts in the good old days. You will probably find there is a clause in your partners T&Cs along the lines of ...

"The company reserves the right to reduce or increase your hours of work and vary your shift pattern at some future date. At this time you will be given notice of the proposed change".

Oner of the pitfalls of working shifts I'm afraid.

A decent company will give appropriate notice (something similar to the notice you would be entitled to if you were made redundant) and recognise the extra hours by for example amending shift allowance or pro rata increasing salary (though they don't normally like doing that as it has implications for pensions, redundancy calculations and future pay calculations).

Your partners action depends on how financially worse off she feels she will be, how strong your union representation is. If you have no union represenation a bit of brainstorming will probably come up with a list of reasons why they should gie you an increase.

Extra hours (obviously).
Extra travelling time.
Extra travelling costs.
Loss of time off.
Loss of rest days.
Loss of weekends

try and put a financial element to your argument as well as a social aspect.

Also you may wish to look at the EU directive on working hours which limits the imposition of shifts which take the average working week to more than 48 hours (the average over a period of 17 weeks I think).

Hope this helps.

Chas
 
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