Part time workers and overtime?

[jas1002]

Can anyone tell me please if part time/job share workers have the same entitlement to over time as full time workers.

Thanks in advance.

[WendyS]

You might find that your company interpets "overtime" as being the extra hours worked once the basic 35 or 40 hour week has been completed, so you might not be entitled to "overtime rates at time and a half, etc. until that number of full time hours have been completed. However, if you work additional hours to your contracted (part-time) hours you should be paid for them (if your contract specifies you are entitled to be paid for overtime) but only at your normal hourly rate, until the full-time contracted hours have been reached.

[jas1002]

Thanks for you speedy reply Wendy.

We don't get an overtime rate so the money isn't an issue and personally I work part time 'cause I don't want the extra hours but some of the job sharers do.

What it is - The company ask full time workers if they want any overtime and only when they've asked the full timers will they ask the P/T workers.

[WendyS]

This sounds a little unfair, as they appear to be valuing full-timers more than part-timers, especially as women are often usually the part-timers because of child care commitments. Some people might call this sex discrimination by the back door. I did a job share for several years and our job contracts were treated in exactly the same way as full time employees were treated. I would suggest your part-time colleagues approach their boss and ask to be treated on the same basis as full timers when overtime is being allocated. To be fair, the organisation may have felt that part-timers specifically wanted shorter hours because of their domestic commitments and might not have been interested in working overtime, so there may not have been any deliberate attempts are unfairness and if they approach the matter in that vein, they might be more successful in getting the policy changed.