Businesses sometimes need employees to work more than their normal hours in order to meet the needs of the business but can you ask an employee to work more hours without paying them?
In practice, you can, however, there are a few things you need to bear in mind:
- The employees contract of employment must clearly specify that they may be requested to work additional hours and that you do not pay overtime.
- As an Employer, it is important to bear in mind the Working Time Regulations, which means that employees cannot work more than an average of 48 hours per week. The average is worked out over a 17-week reference period.
- The employer must ensure that the employee’s average pay for all the hours they have worked does not dip below the relevant minimum wage.
- If employers do pay overtime, details of overtime rates of pay should be clearly detailed in the Contract of Employment.