Salaried employee in Tech Industry. Co policy is not to pay OT or TOiL?

Hello,

I am curious to know what people feel about the following situations...

Background is:
Salaried tech employee expected to work 39 hours/week + occasional overtime as required. Place of work is office in business park in Ireland.

1. What would be considered "occasional overtime", and what should be expected in return for working this occasional overtime if anything?

2. Occasionally asked to work weekends, involving anything from a couple of hours of work from home to coming into the office for a full day. What is expected in return for working this weekend work?

3. Occasionally asked to travel abroad to visit customers. Is time spent travelling (particulary flying to and from new city) considered working time?

I ask this because the company pays no overtime, and has recently revoked giving time off in lieu. I mentioned salaried and tech industry to get an idea of how other companies deal with these situations.

Thanks!

Hi there, we are often required to work OT. We don't get overtime, or officially time in lieu. However the work place is flexible enough and where we do alot of OT we would get some time back albeit unofficially. I work in IT if it helps.
P.

pinkyBear said:

Hi there, we are often required to work OT. We don't get overtime, or officially time in lieu. However the work place is flexible enough and where we do alot of OT we would get some time back albeit unofficially. I work in IT if it helps.
P.

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That used to be the case for me also (IT too), we wouldnt bat an eyelid at a couple of hours extra but if it went to a half day youd get the time back.

However recent changes to how time is managed has removed this flexibility so now staff just refuse to do extra time unless its agreed in advance that they will get the time in lieu.

I work in the tech sector and I know loads of people who work
in other similar companies too. Here are my experiences.

1. What would be considered "occasional overtime", and what should be expected in return for working this occasional overtime if anything?

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Nothing given back in Time In Lieu for "occasional" overtime, even if this is a few hours a week, every week. American customers expect you to be on the end of the phone/email half the evening anyway.

2. Occasionally asked to work weekends, involving anything from a couple of hours of work from home to coming into the office for a full day. What is expected in return for working this weekend work?

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TIL for working weekends sometimes, but never at the same rate. Only if this is organised and arranged in advance. There would never be a Saturday what the building remained locked all day. there is always someone with stuff to finish, that comes in.

3. Occasionally asked to travel abroad to visit customers. Is time spent travelling (particulary flying to and from new city) considered working time?

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Ha, Ha, Ha. Its all in a normal working week to get up in time to be on the 7am flight to Amsterdam/London/Paris, do a days work, fly back, get home at 10pm or later, and be back at your desk on time the next morning.
Actually, you also end up working later the day before you go and the day after.

I ask this because the company pays no overtime, and has recently revoked giving time off in lieu. I mentioned salaried and tech industry to get an idea of how other companies deal with these situations.

Thanks!

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People in tech companies work really, really, really long hours in my experience. A week with 40 hours and no travel is an easy week.

I am not saying this is a good or advisable thing, just the norm.

I work as a java developer in IT company and we would only do overtime every couple of months. We only do it coming up to a release end if there are lots of issues to fix which we try to avoid at all costs. There is no overtime or time in lieu paid. Usually I would do no more than my required 37.5 hours since I don't do on-call work/anything customer facing work/tech support work, so I would disagree with huskerdu regarding the very long hours being the norm, in my experience anyway.

huskerdu said:

People in tech companies work really, really, really long hours in my experience. A week with 40 hours and no travel is an easy week. I am not saying this is a good or advisable thing, just the norm.

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My experience is exactly the same. Myself and almost every developer I know have 'unpaid overtime as required' contracts although most companies are flexible enough to offer time in lieu. Almost all of us work longer weeks than our contract states.