Employment Law - receiving remuneration i am not entitled to.

[GrindaDecoy]

Hello Everyone,

There is a situation happening at work currently and any advice would be great.* I am a local government employee and have been for the last 7 years. We have had far too much work on since day 1 and my manager has always asked people to work more hours and then submit overtime requests for the work done which she then approved. This was submitted to HR and then paid the next month. We have since found out it is against our contract - we are not entitled to overtime. There is an ongoing investigation, and I am very worried about my job.* My manager has already been sacked.* I hadn't realised I wasn't allowed to claim, but it is in a policy.* We have about 20/30 policies and I have not read them all.* I relied on my managers knowledge to say what was allowed or not.

Thanks
*

[ULA]

Firstly I will just say that as an employee if there are policies that related to your working conditions and/or referred to as part of your contract of employment then it is your responsibility to have an understanding of what those policies cover and what you can and cannot do as an employee.

Have you been asked to attend any meetings yet as part of the investigation?
Do you have any proof to support your claim that your manager requested you completed overtime forms for approval to be paid?
Do you know how many people alongside you were asked to to this?
*

[des8]

Perhaps just splitting hairs, but what is the exact wording of the relevant policy?

Does it say you cannot claim overtime, or does it say that overtime won't be paid?

[GrindaDecoy]

Thank you for the replies.

The wording states "Senior staff paid in pay grades x to x are not be entitled to overtime payments."


There are roughly about 10 of us affected.* We are all currently under investigation and attending interviews etc.* We have proof in writing that it was asked as us.


*

[des8]

If* overtime (contrary to written contract) has been paid during the past 7 years, could it be considered a change of contract due to custom and practice?*

[ULA]

Your employer will try and rely on the fact that there is clearly a clause in your contract that said if you were in those specific grades that overtime was not paid, with the view being that this should have been queried by you and your colleagues when overtime started to be claimed.
des8*has a point that after 7 years there could be an argument to support a case of custom and practice, this coupled with the fact that you have written proof that you were asked to submit the overtime claims may assist you. Another factor that you could add is that once the manager had authorised the form it was submitted to HR who processed the payment, they should have picked this up as they should have been aware that overtime could not be claimed by employees at this grade.* *
I hope this helps but if you have any more questions now or as the investigation progresses just come back to this thread.