TIME BACK OR OVERTIME HOTEL TRADE?

Question

Hi can any one help i work as a receptonst in a 5 star hotel, we have no contract as such one was given but not signed.If we work over because we are understaffed we get no overtime or time back is this correct,i dont mind a few minutes but it can be over an hour.

I live in Ireland.

Answer 1

in hotel work you can't just drop everything and leave - so your going to have to work the occasional hour or two extra.  your employers do appear to be arses, but its the trade you find yourself in.  If your important in the business then you can argue the case, if your not best to minimise the extra hours (if it goes over 3 hours - thats taking it, consider a new job).  being a hotel owner I do things like make cups of tea and listen to staff ideas, even then they backchat and babble behind my back (so its a two way thingy)

Answer 2

Even if you didn't sign your contract, the terms of it still apply to you.  If you're given a contract to sign you have a reasonable amount of time to object to the terms in it.  If you don't object, and you still carry on to turn up to work and perform your duties as usual, then you're deemed to have accepted it.

So ... you actually do have a contract, and therefore your first stop should be to read it and see what it says.

To be honest I'm not really familiar with the hotel trade, but in other industries, then ...

- If you're paid an hourly rate, then you should be paid for the time that you work, but this can be at your normal rate of pay (i.e. not at an overtime rate)

- If you're paid a salary, then it's normal that you should stay there until the job is done

If the situation really is so out of hand that you feel that you're being exploited, then you should just have a nice, quiet word with your employer, or if you're in a union then you could get them involved too.  But legally, you may not have much recourse.