More work for the same pay
July 26, 2010 | 25,00 EUR | answered by Dr. Dr. Danjel-Philippe Newerla
Hello,
we (3 part-time employees) have been working 80 hours per month for several years. Now our boss wants us to work 86 hours, for the same pay. Essentially, 6 hours per month for free.
The reasoning is 12 months x 80 hours = 960 hours/year. However, if you divide 960 hours by 20 hours per week, you only get 48 weeks.
So, we would have to work the 4 weeks (6 hours/month) for free in order to reach 52 weeks per year.
We only have an oral employment contract for years.
Can he suddenly demand this or can we refuse without him firing us as a result?
Dear seeker of advice,
Thank you for your inquiry!
Even an oral employment contract is valid and binding, let's get that out of the way first. The employment contract is exclusively decisive for the remuneration and working hours. According to this, you have worked 80 hours per month so far for a corresponding remuneration.
Therefore, you are basically only obliged to work these hours with the same remuneration. Any working hours beyond that (which is what your boss intends), would be considered overtime. There are two possibilities here.
You could either take time off for the overtime, or your boss could pay you for the overtime. However, since the requirement is for you to work more in the long term, it will come down to your boss having to pay you for this overtime, so that you can indeed work more, but only with an appropriately adjusted remuneration.
Therefore, you can kindly decline this.
I would like to point out the following to you:
The legal advice I have provided is based solely on the information you have provided. My response is only an initial legal assessment of the situation, which cannot replace a comprehensive evaluation of the facts. Adding or omitting relevant information can lead to a completely different legal assessment.
I hope that my explanations have helped you. Feel free to contact me via my email address or the follow-up option.
I wish you a pleasant Monday afternoon!
Kind regards from the North Sea coast
Dipl.-Jur. Danjel-Philippe Newerla, Attorney
Heilsbergerstr. 16
27580 Bremerhaven
kanzlei.newerla@web.de
Tel. 0471/3088132
Fax.0471/57774
