Unpaid overtime: Rife in hospitality?

Just took a very interesting call from an experience relief chef in the North West of England who warned that there are scores of low-paid hospitality staff working for way below the National Minimum Wage because they are not being paid overtime.

He says there is one particular group - with a number of three-star hotels - which has been routinely not paying overtime to staff on the basis that they are salaried.

Our source says some staff are working as many as 80 hours a week but only getting paid for their 40-hour salaries, meaning they are earning way less than the minimum wage (£5.73 per hour).

Unfortunately, he says, most of the staff involved - largely young or foreign workers - are too afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs (and, in many cases, live-in accomodation).

Has anyone else come across this sort of practice? Is it widespread?

Let us know.

This is just plain wrong. Even when an employee is paid a salary, as opposed to paid by the hour or shift, there is still a requirement to meet the National Minimum Wage. For NMW purposes there is no such thing as "unpaid overtime"; NMW must be paid for each and every hour worked. Therefore for a salaried worker additional overtime payments would have to be made so that the total payment for the pay reference period (the frequency at which the employee is paid) equates to at least NMW for each and every hour. Therefore the only way in which any overtime can be unpaid is if an equal amount of paid time off in lieu is given in the same pay reference period as the overtime was worked. The hotel group in question will have a major issue if HMRC come a-knocking. More details here : http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081685877 Peter

Thanks for your thoughts Peter, a beacon of light in the murky world of pay legislation as ever.

Here is a live version of that link: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?type=RESOURCES&itemId=1081685877