Ex-Facebook manager sues biz after getting 'Zucked out of overtime' Facebook has been hit with a class-action lawsuit from a former manager alleging the social network deliberately misclassified its employees to avoid paying them overtime. Named plaintiff Susie Bigger claimed she and other Facebookers working in customer solutions manager (CSM) positions, which pay based on commissions, were …
I don't know why anyone ever asks for a quote in these situations. Of course the statement will deny any wrong doing on their part. Anything else would be tantamount to admitting guilt before the case even started and negate the point of the case entirely and should just go straight to negotiations or arbitration.
I worked for a UK consultancy which did not allow overtime to be logged if you were not on a customer job. They bypassed UK's laws on correct admin by simply making it impossible to log overtime on internal work, and as far as I know they're probably still doing it. No news here.
"There is no law on overtime in the UK".
Incorrect, the Working Time Regulations 1998 have mandatory rules companies must comply with, one of which is the documenting of all hours worked beyond 48 hours a week. This is not optional and even if an employee signs a contract agreeing to work more than 48 hours a week, the company is legally obliged to document all hours worked above 48 hours, paid or unpaid.
All links available from here.
http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/workingtimedirective.htm
The company as mentioned above has broken the law, and should be reported to the HSE who can take action against companies trying to circumvent the law.
I've never had a job in the UK that hasn't started out on the first morning with a meeting with an HR doid, a piece of paper with the working time directive opt out, a pen, and no way out of the room without quitting or signing the piece of paper.
"and no way out of the room without quitting or signing the piece of paper."
This kind of bullying will go on as long as employees either don't know their rights, or are unwilling to exercise them.
The law clearly states that a company cannot force an opt out, and further also says an employee cannot receive detrimental treatment if they do not opt out. ACAS tribunals typically award a years wages in cases where this has happened and the employee has challenged it. Again it comes back to evidence, the employee is presumed to be telling the truth. I've seen "evidence" produced where the employee kept the form, another where the employee took a photograph of the documents in front of him with his phone and lastly, an employee who called the police to report unlawful detention, because he was told he could not leave the room without signing it. That one resulted in a big payout, and a criminal charge against the owner.
Anyway, the relevant law:- https://www.gov.uk/maximum-weekly-working-hours/weekly-maximum-working-hours-and-opting-out
I've worked for universities, consultancies, startups and the only job I remember clocking in and out in a way which the company could record how many hours I worked was a student holiday job in a warehouse.
Are you saying that every university or startup that doesn't have signed timesheets is breaking the law?
"Are you saying that every university or startup that doesn't have signed timesheets is breaking the law?"
Judging by the responses so far, I'm saying people are clearly unaware of their rights, are not exercising those rights, and are being walked all over by their employers.
If your employer makes you sign a 48 hour opt out, the law says that is illegal.
If your employer makes you work more than 48 hours a week without opting out and doesn't pay any overtime, that is breaking 2 laws. First is the working time regulations, the second is the minimum wage laws.
If you willingly sign the opt-out, and your employer repeatedly forces you to work for example an hour per day additional work at no pay, the company is breaking minimum wage laws. (The law actually considers the weekly average overtime worked, with this based on all additional hours worked over a 17 week period, then averaged out. This then provides the basis for the minimum wage claim).
If you willingly sign the opt out, and work a 14 hour shift fully paid, and then another the day after, the company is breaking the working time directive by allowing you to exceed your statutory maximum. Opt-outs don't apply.
If you are under 18 and are working a 48 hour week, the company is breaking the law because under 18s cannot work more than 40 hours a week, and they cannot opt out.
In all these cases if the HSE investigate, and the company has not got any documentation that can disprove the claims of the employee, then the company has broken the law by default and will get the appropriate slap on the wrist. Like most corporate crime, if no investigation is made, then no laws have been broken. Employers and HR departments walk a fine line when they mislead employees about their rights, and many of these companies are aware they will get away with it most of the time because people are sheep, the comments in this thread back that up. People don't read the laws that give them rights.
Don't take my word for it, google is your friend. Or click the links I posted above which takes you to the relevant regulations, and pages upon pages of explanations.
*There are some exclusions and additions to these regs like the armed forces etc but these are specific cases that have been written into law for that profession.
"But it's not above 48 hours so doesn't need to be recorded?"
In this instance the minimum wage laws apply. The law states that minimum wage must be paid for all hours worked and that a company has a legal requirement to document all hours worked. Again the HSE will enforce this if a company is found to be avoiding mandatory documentation when it comes to timekeeping, all the employee has to do is report it, anonymously if necessary.
In the case of tribunals, ACAS has always found in favour of the employee if the company fails to provide documented time keeping. The word of an employee regarding hours worked is considered to be truthful if a company has no documentation to say otherwise. In cases where a company has provided documentation, then the employee is expected to provide evidence to the contrary. A selfie taken at the place of work with newspaper front page and a visible clock in the background has successfully been used to challenge company documentation.
This is one of the good things from an employees perspective of being in the EU. It is also likely one of the many employee rights that are likely to be thrown out once we brexit.
There is no law on overtime in the UK, just minimum wage legistaltion. If youre over that then tough titty.
That's irrelevant. They are still required to ensure that recording of hours worked is accurate and reflects reality. Not doing that is quite simply fraud and can lead to fairly stiff financial penalties if caught.
Anyone who doubts that large corporations are soulless merely has to look at the games they play with their own employees. Surely the huge profits Facebook makes won’t be eaten up by paying their employees in a fair manner. Sadly Facebook is not alone, a lot of corps do this, part timers working just shy of the hours that would get them benefits, unpaid overtime, etc. Etc. The Facebooks and others just look petty when they report record profits, pay their C levels in the millions but still try to screw a wage earner out of a nickel. Bravo.
When I worked for a UK County Council, we were "salaried" and therefore expected to work all hours for nothing extra. As we could only do computer maintenance outside normal hours they expected us to work the normal day and then come back to do the maintenance.
On the second occasion I said no, not without pay.
I offered to do the maintenance during normal working hours, but it was their desire that I did it out of hours so I demanded payment.
Cue a meeting with the County Treasurer, Computer Manager and all the long time support team employees at which it was pointed out that it was "our duty" to do whatever was required when required etc., and never in the history of mankind had anything so dastardly been proposed.
One by one they asked the long term employees if they were willing to back down and do the work as requested, to which they all reluctantly agreed.
When it got to me at the end, I just pointed out that they had plenty of volunteers willing to do the task so my answer was still No.
About an hour later the management realised that no one else could actually do it without severe retraining.
We ALL got paid overtime for out of hours work after that!
And I never got a thank you.
It all depends on whether that was part of the job when you started. If you take on a job knowing that there will be some out-of-hours work included in the annual salary and you are not paid by the hour, then you don't have a case.
If they came along after the event and said you need to do out-of-hours work for nothing extra, then you are right.
> And I never got a thank you.
Nor will you. Management didn't want to pay for overtime. You had them over a barrel, and they caved in. Once it dawned on management that everyone in their IT department saw one of their coworkers "stand up to The Man" and succeed, they were forced to pay overtime or be faced with future refusals to do after-hours work.
I've done that here in the States... no overtime. However, the usual process was "comp time off". So if I pulled an all-nighter, then I could take that many hours off. If it was night maintenance work, then I came in late. Your employee is a true ass, IMO.
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