Reasonable Overtime?

[beansbeans!]

he is 2ic at work and he's in hospitality. We expect the overtime and all that, and it never really bothers us. But at the moment things are a tad pear shaped there and well the boss wants more hours out of him. According to the boss there is to be no breaks except toilet breaks. No split shifts allowed, which splits alone would cut back on his hours yet the same amount of work would be achieved.
but as I said we expect the hours and are used to it, but its the term reasonable that we are unsure about. Today for instance he started at 6am that shift is meant to finish at 2pm, but he is working straight through because that is reasonable to the bosses. So after 2pm should be overtime, but is that reasonable?

[LimeSlice]

I think it sounds like time he sat down and renegotiated his salary. If they need him to increase his hours and shoulder more responsibility than they have previously - a sudden and constant increase in his hours to save them the money it would cost them to employ the extra chef they obviously need - then I would be suggesting that he discusses the issue with his Head and the owner.

ETA: Do any of these extra hours go to time in lieu?

[beansbeans!]

I think it sounds like time he sat down and renegotiated his salary. If they need him to increase his hours and shoulder more responsibility than they have previously - a sudden and constant increase in his hours to save them the money it would cost them to employ the extra chef they obviously need - then I would be suggesting that he discusses the issue with his Head and the owner.

ETA: Do any of these extra hours go to time in lieu?

he had a meeting with the powers to be last week where they talked about a pay rise. who knows if they will come through with that one. They have an ad running at the moment to fill a position, but they arent getting any bites that the powers to be like (wrong age, not enough experience etc)
Nah no overtime goes to time in lieu, that only happens for public holidays.

He isnt on the award, but if he pushed to get the award wage, then the base wage would be smaller but then he would have to be paid for every hour over the 7.6. So if they were to adhere to that then it would be worth while.

[chody47]

I don't know much about the hospitality industry, but I feel that if you agreed to get $x for 7.6hrs work with some reasonable overtime but were actually working close to double that on a regular basis then its not at all reasonable and he should either not do the overtime (or at least not so regularly), should be paid for the overtime or should have an increase in his wage.

[beansbeans!]

You are right though LS that is the hours needed to complete the daily task at hand. And yep thats part of his role as 2ic. We were just talking about how there is no definition in his contract for the term reasonable overtime. We were talking about how saying 7.6hrs on the work contract sounds great, but the reality is working double that almost every day.
And yeah Chody, thats what we were thinking.

Also we know that if people were paid an hourly rate, then a lot of services would not be available, and thats not just hospitality, it happens in every industry.