If you stay late at the office on your own initiative, this is not paid extra. Another situation is if your boss asks you to work overtime. In this case, you can apply for increased pay or additional days off. But it is important to properly formalize overtime. Lawyer Maria Goncharova will tell you about all the intricacies of overtime work.
What is overtime?
Overtime work is a situation when an employee works beyond the established working hours at the initiative of the manager. This may be work after the end of the daily shift or a total excess of the agreed working hours for the month. By law, it is prohibited to work overtime for more than four hours on two consecutive days and more than 120 hours per year.
The law separately distinguishes work on weekends and holidays. It happens that it is specified in advance in the contract if you work in non-stop production, in the service or entertainment sector. For example, bakers, doctors, salespeople and actors work even on weekends and holidays. Also, they can be called to work on weekends if the enterprise has urgent tasks that must be completed for its normal operation in the future.
How do they pay for work in the evenings and on weekends?
To receive additional pay for overtime work, it is important to complete the paperwork correctly. The employer must:
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obtain written consent where necessary;
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issue an order to involve in overtime work;
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Record overtime in the timesheet.
Sample Consent for Overtime Work
The first two hours of overtime are paid one and a half times more than the usual working time. The remaining overtime hours are paid at double the rate. Work on weekends and holidays is also paid at double the rate. Moreover, this is true for people who regularly work on weekends, and for those who went out on a non-working day due to force majeure.
One and a half or double pay is the minimum fixed by law. According to a collective agreement, overtime may be paid more.
If you want, you can choose a day off instead of extra money. It should last as many hours as you worked overtime. For example, if you stayed at work for 4 hours today, you can leave half a day earlier tomorrow. It’s a different story with working on weekends and holidays. Even if you only worked three hours on Sunday, you are entitled to a whole day off as compensation. Keep in mind that in this case, you will be paid for overtime at the regular rate, not the increased rate.
Can you be forced to work overtime without your consent?
There are force majeure situations when the employee’s consent to overtime is not required. These include:
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Elimination of consequences of disasters, industrial accidents, natural disasters.
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Repair of water supply, gas supply, heat supply, lighting, transport, and communications systems.
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The introduction of a state of emergency, fire, flood, famine, earthquake, epidemic and other past or future disasters that threaten people’s lives.
Even in emergency situations, there are categories of people who cannot be required to work overtime :
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pregnant women;
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people under 18 years of age;
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employees working under an apprenticeship contract.
These people cannot work in the evenings and on weekends, even if they agree to do so.
There are also people who should never be involved in overtime work without written consent. These include:
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women with children under three years of age;
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single mothers and fathers raising children under 14 years of age;
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guardians raising children under 14 years of age;
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parents with many children, provided that at least three children are under 18 years old, one of them is under 14 years old, and the second parent works on a rotational basis;
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people with disabilities.
In what cases is written consent for overtime work required?
The short answer is in all cases except for the force majeure described above. It is important to understand that some situations that at first glance seem extraordinary, by law, leave a person the right to refuse overtime.
For example, you are not obligated to stay late at work:
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if your replacement doesn’t show up and the job doesn’t involve a break;
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if it is necessary to repair equipment on whose proper functioning the continued operation depends;
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if it is necessary to complete a task started during working hours.
What to do if your boss forces you to work after work, at lunchtime and on weekends
Ignore verbal requests
If overtime is not formalized in writing, there will be no additional payment for it. So, you can voluntarily stay late to finish your monthly report. But you are not obliged to do this if your boss simply asked you to. You will not be fired, since there was no written order and consent to overtime work.
Follow job responsibilities
Your job description and employment contract set out your rights and obligations. If you do everything that is stated there and comply with the work schedule, you should not be afraid of your boss’s threats of dismissal. Even if you have irregular working hours, delays at work cannot be permanent.
Contact the State Labor Inspectorate
If the manager violated the rules of overtime work, he can be fined . To do this, file a statement about the violation of labor rights with the regional state labor inspectorate. For individual entrepreneurs and small businesses, the fine will be up to 5,000 rubles, and for organizations – 50,000 rubles. In case of repeated violation, the manager can be disqualified, the fine for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses will increase to 20,000 rubles, and for organizations – up to 70,000 rubles.
Go to court
If you worked overtime, you were properly registered, but you were not paid, you can go to court within a year to get payment. The statement of claim must be accompanied by an order to involve you in overtime work, your consent and a time sheet. You do not need to pay a fee for such a claim .
