Not paying overtime if timesheets are late

An unnamed person’s work has emailed staff to say that overtime will not be paid (not delayed) if overtime sheets are not submitted by a given date and time each month (this changes each month and is emailed out at the start of the month). They said that they will only pay overtime worked during that month. Is that legal? I’m almost certain it’s not. I know about minimum wage rules and the implications of that.

The overtime sheets need signing off by certain members of staff which means the employee is dependent on finding them and getting their signature. Depending on when the overtime was worked, it could mean having to submit it the same day - it could even potentially mean the deadline has passed before the overtime has been completed if it is at the end of the month.

Contracts don’t mention anything about submitting time sheets at all, just that overtime is paid at single rate up to X amount of hours and 1.5x or 2x depending on number of hours/weekends etc.

It says this applies to previous months too so anyone who didn’t submit a sheet for September won’t be paid for that work even though they hadn’t been made aware of that fact before September ended.

 

Not sure but I would say it’s illegal. If it is, It won’t be before long with this lot in charge

 

Probably illegal, but certainly unreasonable!

If that much overtime is being paid then it strikes me that a week or two of working to rule might show them the error of their ways...

 

I don’t know the legalities of not paying if not being submitted on time , most payrolls have a cut off time each month but usually you can claim retrospectively .where I worked it was usually the line manager hadn’t got OT forms in on time that was the problem but you got it the next month . There was one Director that decided workers paid above a certain level / grade weren’t entitled to OT and stopped payment of the previous months OT . He did that once when he realised non of the weekend and night shifts were covered without paying OT and obviously no one was going to cover them without OT . Are they in a Union if not they should all stop doing OT until they are more reasonable

 

Some are in a union, some not.

What I also don’t know is if an email counts as changing contract terms. If the email is ignored, does that count as acceptance of new terms? The current contracts don’t say anything about timesheets or cut offs.

 

Twenty years ago, I was a Payroll Manager in the steel industry. For obvious reasons, there was a deadline for all overtime to be signed off for payment. However, if that wasn't done, the payment was simply delayed until the next payroll. The situation you've described is disgusting, immoral and I can't honestly believe it could be legal.

 

I concur. I can see that payment might be delayed until the next payroll run, but failure to pay at all would be a breach of their contract of employment, which would of course be unlawful.

 

It would be illegal to not pay for work that employees have done.

Like @JLWBigLil says, if the deadline isn’t met then the payment should be delayed.

 

This should be a union situation, and anyone not in the union should join ASAP(they usually have a window of a month before they can help after joining). Totally wrong and immoral, and tantamount to wage theft...

 

That’s my thinking. I know it is completely allowed (and I would say to be expected) for payment to be delayed until the next payment date but I refuse to believe not paying it at all can be legal and not a breach of contract.

 

I'm in that profession in Snr Management, CIPP qualified. Not paying an employee for work done is illegal, that's fairly obvious as stated above. It may also be a breach of NMW, although those hours won't be stated on their payslip HMRC would include them when calculating their hourly rate. Deadlines are fairly common practise in payroll, we have them but we do give room for movement on them. First advice is I'd speak to Payroll -》HR -》HMRC. HMRC can take the employer to court on behalf of the employee.

I would make sure all the facts are correct though, it's a pretty strange thing to occur in this day and age.

 

I'm almost certain it's illegal and certainly unreasonable. Also do the company expect people to do overtime after the payroll deadline towards the end of the month and not get paid? As others have said, a period of working to rule should sort them out

 

Name and shame them. Highly illegal.

 

Worth a call to ACAS? They give free advice on such matters..

https://www.acas.org.uk/advice

 

The email is pretty black and white. I don’t know if anyone has fallen foul of it yet (although I suspect some have as there were two big overtime events in September and I bet not everyone will have handed in their sheets as there’s never been a deadline previously). Is it worth making the union know that it’s been said it will happen?

 

There’s is no restriction for an employer to claim back money overpaid, so can’t see how such a restriction is allowed.
As someone else also said if they didn’t pay, it would be classed as unpaid overtime, which then could mean falling below NMW.

 

I suppose it depends if it is a policy communicated with the staff. For example, in a previous role if I didn’t claim my mileage before the 7th of the month, I would automatically be charged for all fuel booked to my fuel card.
If I didn’t put my expenses in within two months of occurring the expense, I was no longer able to claim it.
When I worked for an agency if my timesheet wasn’t in for 12 pm on the Monday, I wouldn’t get paid until the week after.
If the deadline is reasonable and has been communicated, not sure why people wouldn’t put in their time sheet on time?

 

In the first two examples it isn’t related to hours worked though and in the third you were paid, just later. Not sure why people might not hand in sheets on time now a time has been communicated but things happen. They might not be able to find the person to sign it off in time, the overtime might be after the deadline, they might have been off sick themselves between the hours worked and the deadline. Whatever the reason, if they’ve worked it, they should be paid according to their contract, I’d have thought.

 

I believe it would be simply illegal to not pay people for hours worked. If people aren't following the procedure they could in theory be disciplined but not have payment withheld.
Ontop of all that it would seem rather silly not to pay it as surely this would just lead to people refusing to do overtime?

 

Surely it's got be illegal? Having people work extra hours for you and refusing to pay up just cos the paperwork is late.
Criminal is that!