The claimant was employed by the respondent as a Disability Assessor and her statement of terms and conditions noted that she “may be required to work additional hours from time to time”. After finding the workload unbearable, the claimant handed in her notice and saw out her notice period. She subsequently submitted her claim which included an amount owed for overtime hours amounting to £5484.88. She alleged that she frequently sent emails to her line manager informing her that she was working excess hours but conceded that she did not make a formal claim for overtime in respect of these as she “did not know how to”.

The respondent disputed both the actual hours claimed as overtime or that she was contractually entitled to payment.  The tribunal therefore had to decide:

a) whether during her employment the claimant had worked hours in excess of her normal hours of work; and

b) if so, whether the respondent had failed to pay the claimant for overtime, in breach of contract.

The tribunal held that the claimant’s evidence was lacking in credibility and was contradictory and awarded her a much-reduced amount of £104.61.

Practical Lessons

‘Overtime' is not a term defined in employment legislation. In the absence of an express or implied contractual term, there is generally no obligation on employees to work overtime and no implied right on the part of employees to be paid for overtime when worked voluntarily.

In the present case the claimant’s contract noted that overtime would “only be paid in exceptional circumstances when the work is essential and must be approved in advance and authorised by your line manager”. This is quite a normal contractual clause and indeed many contracts stipulate that extra hours will be not be remunerated at all. However, while there is no requirement to pay overtime, employees may still bring a claim in respect of their entitlement to the national minimum wage if their pay, when averaged out over all of hours worked, falls short of this amount.