KEY POINTS:
I have recently been asked to work overtime. I am not too happy about this as I have two young children to look after and a household to run. Do I have a right to decline my employer's request?
Ordinary time or ordinary hours are commonly defined in employment agreements. If they are not defined, the requirement of the Minimum Wage Act - that employment agreements "fix at not more than 40 the maximum number of hours (exclusive of overtime) to be worked in any week" - may be taken as a guideline.
The Employment Relations Act has no provisions regarding working hours or overtime work.
Employers may ask their employees to work overtime but the employees have the right to agree or decline - and should not be subject to any penalty or disadvantage if they decline.
It is lawful for an employment agreement to require that employees work overtime. If there is a clause in your agreement which states that you must work overtime and you refuse to do so, you will be in breach of your employment agreement.
While it is up to the employment agreement to establish whether overtime work is voluntary or obligatory, employees do not have a right to elect to work overtime. It can be worked only when required by the employer.
If there is a clause in your employment agreement which states that you must work overtime, it should also provide for overtime payments. Overtime payments are usually based on the ordinary time rate of pay for the job or the individual, and special payments and allowances are not taken into account in calculating overtime pay. This may be different with allowances that are paid on an hourly basis.
Traditionally, overtime rates were 1.5 times the ordinary time rate (time-and-a-half) for the first three hours, and twice the ordinary time (double time) for any further overtime work. But there are now a wide variety of overtime pay calculations. Moreover agreements may provide for either daily overtime (overtime rates apply after eight hours work in a day) or weekly overtime (overtime rates apply after 40 hours work in a week). Some agreements provide for employees to take paid time off from work in lieu of additional payment for overtime.
I suggest that you read your employment agreement to see if an overtime clause is contained within it. If there is no such clause in your agreement, your employer is not entitled to insist that you work overtime.
If any difficulties arise at work because you have declined to do overtime (and there is no provision for it in your employment agreement) then you should contact an employment law specialist/lawyer.
Tea and coffee. Are employers obliged to provide tea and coffee for staff?
There is no legal requirement for an employer to provide tea and coffee but it would be unusual for them not to. In New Zealand, there had been a long-standing custom and practice for employers to supply tea and coffee. However, such past practices can be set aside provided that an employer gives their employees adequate and reasonable notice of their intention to do so.
Often older individual employment agreements and union boilerplate collective agreements require the employer to provide tea and coffee. Company policies and house rules may also give an employee entitlement to these beverages.
You will need to look through your employment agreement and the company's policies to see if your employer is obliged to provide you with tea and coffee.
