Shift work and shift allowences

Nikumba

Nikumba

Nikumba

Soldato
Joined
4 Dec 2002
Posts
4,002
Location
Bourne, Lincs
Hi,

We have just had a meeting with HR and the service delivery team where we have been given new shift times to support the new US offices.

Currently we do a rolling rotaion of 0630-1500, 0900-1730, 1000-1830 which is Monday to Friday, to support the new offices we are moving to this pattern: 0630-1500, 1000-1830, 1330-2200.

We raised the question of shift allowance and we have been told in the paperwork "Working until 10pm is not deemed to be unsociable hours, under the Working Time Regulations 1998. Therefore it is not envisaged that this proposal will attract an increase in salay."

I have l have tried looking through the pages of that regulation but either I am missing it or can not see it in the walls of text.

So does such a clause exist in this regulation? anyone have similar experiences of this?

We did raise the fact that if this clause does exist, surely working to 10pm is un-social from a family point of view and were told oh it was considered.

thanks for the help

Kimbie
 
As a night worker for 20+ years i can honestly say they are right,i start at 10pm and get night allowance from then,anytime before that i get normal pay.
 
you should still ask for a reduced allowance for shift working. I got 20% extra for working nights but that went down to 12.5% after losing the night shift.
 
My employer pays shift uplift for any shift outside of 9-5 regular. What the actual legal requirements are other than giving the minimum rest period between shifts/per week is I don't know, however...

Expecting people to work shift patterns without any recompense seems rather unreasonable though.
 
Legislation shouldn't have to come into it... I mean that shouldn't be the sole motivation of your employer. Retention etc.. should play a part too. Support team where I work gets paid for shifts. You'd actually get paid extra for the early shift too.
 
I seem to remember being told the time was 22:00 but people got paid from 20:00 at our place.

I see you're from Bourne, I lived there for a while - quite liked it. Left as they were building the big development in the south - Elsea Park or something like that.
 
Our guys do 6-2 early / 2-10 lates/ 10-6 nights and 7-7 nights.

Shift allowance for early and late shifts is £50 a week, 10-6 nights are £75 a week and 7-7 nights are £100 a week , so I'd be looking at shift allowance or refuse to work those hours.
 
I never got a shift allowance when I did 2pm-10pm. I did when I moved to 3pm-11pm (suited me better).
I don't know your situation but I moved to a permanent early shift after a year as I had a newborn by then (I had an understanding manager) so think how it'll affect you and yours should you have to finish late (or start early)
 
As above there is no legal requirement to pay a shift allowance. But if a company I was already at changed my working hours against my agreement I would be looking elsewhere pretty sharpish.
 
Employers have a bit of flexibility with it anyway - while the period counted as night work (and usually used to define 'unsociable hours') has to be 7 hours long it only has to cover midnight to 5am, the other 2 hours can be moved back and forth as they wish so they will probably work it to their advantage and have it starting after 10pm (it always would anyway) and finish before 6:30.

And ultimately there is limited obligations as to out of hours/unsociable hours allowances.
 
Last edited:
malfunkshun said:
Unfortunately there is no legal obligation to pay shift allowance, only a contractual one (where such a thing is included in your contract)
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correct

though we get 1.5x between 17:00 and 08:00 and 2x on Sundays, this is calculated into a percentage uplift
 
Rotty said:
correct

though we get 1.5x between 17:00 and 08:00 and 2x on Sundays, this is calculated into a percentage uplift
Click to expand...

Without the competition in the employment market of late a lot of places have slashed or removed those allowances :S where I used to work completely removed their normal double time for out of hours work and reduced what they still pay for Sundays, etc. to a time and a third :S
 
Rroff said:
Without the competition in the employment market of late a lot of places have slashed or removed those allowances :S where I used to work completely removed their normal double time for out of hours work and reduced what they still pay for Sundays, etc. to a time and a third :S
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Our new hires don't get the same just the ones on older contracts, they would love to get rid of them but we went through a TUPE transfer (between 2 parts of same company) and so ours are protected
 
In this kind of situation, I'd say it depends on the size of the number of people effected, but you may be able to club together and basically say that you are not happy with the changes of working hours to being made to do an evening shift.

This then opens up dialogue if staff are reluctant and unwilling, at which point, a possible shift wage or payrise might be an acceptable compromise.

Obviously so much comes down to contract, but if everyone is onboard with it, then maybe you will get a positive outcome.
 
I start some shifts at 7am and finish some shifts as late as 9pm and I get 12.5% shift allowance, which is a pretty hefty boost to my wage. I guess it just depends on your company.
 
Anti social hours start at 10pm and finish at 6am where I work. I occasionally have a shift that finishes at 22.15 so I get a tiny bit of extra pay.
 
Psymonkee said:
Anti social hours start at 10pm and finish at 6am where I work. I occasionally have a shift that finishes at 22.15 so I get a tiny bit of extra pay.
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I work unsocial hours 15:00-22:00 Tuesday-Thursday then 18:00-03:00 Friday&Saturday.

I get a whole £1 more an hour all the time over my colleagues who refuse to work anything other than 09:00-17:00 Mon-Fri (they only do 3 days however).

The extra pay is handy but it annoys me as I am the only worker with kids and get to spend very little time with them. The others wont let work interfere with their social lives, which happen to be the local pub.
 
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