Overtime Entitlement

[Combatzone]

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a great Christmas. Seeking a little advice with regards to a contract that I have recently been offered. My contract states that my working hours are 4am to 3pm Monday to Friday with 1 hour unpaid lunch. This totals a 50 hour working week. My employer insists that they have the right to transfer any out of contract hours that I have had to work and deduct them from another day in the same week, I.e. if I do 14 hours on Monday, I will only work 6 on the Wednesday. I feel this is deliberate with the intention to avoid paying overtime. Also, in the example given means I lose 4 contracted hours on the Wednesday which is contrary to my contract. I am of the opinion that this is illegal and am looking for confirmation that this practice contradicts everything on the Gov website with regard to employees rights.

[ULA]

Hope you are having a good Christmas break.

Contracted hours are the agreed number of hours that an employer is contractually obliged to provide work for and pay an employee for. On the flip side, of this the contracted hours are also the number of hours that you must be available to work in a normal working week which for you under this contract is 50 hours. Overtime, if it is paid (check your contract), would be payable after your 50 hours of work in a week has been completed as that is what you are contracted to work.

I do however have two concerns about your contract:

1. By signing this you are agreeing to waive your rights to a 48 hour working week as set out in the Working Time Regulations.
2. If working longer one day and still being asked to start work again at 4am the next, you need to be aware of your entitlement to rest breaks between working days.

[Combatzone]

Hi Ula and thanks for taking the time to comment and clarify, much appreciated. Seems strange that the daily contracted hours are completely overlooked in favour of the total weekly contracted hours and the content of Gov.uk is clear that any hours worked outside of your contracted hours is overtime with no reference to the weekly total. If I work till 5 on a Monday the last two hours are clearly outside of my contracted hours....seems contradictory to me! 30 years self employment means I have little experience as an employee and the contracts involved.
I do realise that I I am waiving my rights to 2 hours possible overtime and they do enforce the statuarory 11 hours breaktime between working days but thank you for raising your concerns...they want their pound of flesh!
Good luck with the forum and I would highly recommend it to friends and colleagues in the future,
kind regards,
JB.