last day (16 days later) » 

17:49
38
Q: Is it a good deal to receive a raise to replace paid overtime?

RimskiI'm a software developer in the UK. My employer has made an offer to raise my salary and introduce a private health care benefit, but in turn they want to remove any paid overtime that I do. The expectation is that I still work the extra hours when needed. I worked out that the salary increase t...

It is not a good deal. Your concerns are legit and your salary increase probably not significant enough to renounce your right to paid overtime. I would certainly keep your current conditions.
Do not trust what HR tells you. They exist to protect the interests of the company, not yours. I am really suspicious when HR tells us what a great deal soemthing is for the employees.
Not a full answer, but: If you aren't getting paid for OT, then don't work it. Base pay is for what you do during your regular hours, not for extra hours.
How are they going to "remove paid overtime"? In most jurisdictions this is simply legally impossible. That either means you ain't working extra time or that they are committing wage theft.
There is a possible implication here which we can only guess, but you need to think about it. If you refuse the offer, you may be effectively committing your self to remaining in "hourly paid" positions within the company for the indefinite future, and be saying goodbye to any promotion prospects that may come up in future. Of course if you think "career progression" only ever means "move to another company every 2 or 3 years" you might not care about that. Also, paid overtime is not a right. If the company withdraws overtime, you work fewer hours, but you also get less pay.
17:49
Isn't there a law for paid overtime? there is in most countries, I'm surprised that companies can do what they want.
@com.prehensible In my country, your employment contract may stipulate you are required to work a "reasonable" amount of unpaid overtime, if you are salaried. The law does not prohibit this. This is probably not the same for every country.
Could you get them to put in a clause that limits the amount of unpaid overtime to the amount of hours you had put in last year as a safeguard?
Hello. If your overtime last year combined with your old salary is equal to your new salary, and you're not getting paid overtime anymore, it doesn't sound like a raise to me. Am I making a mistake?
Depends on how much unpaid overtime you'll be doing
@Bakuriu Expecting programmers to opt out of their EU-granted rights and work unpaid overtime is pretty common in the UK (at least, it is in the games industry).
17:49
@さりげない告白 Normally in so called 'all in'-contracts, the included overtime is limited to 5 hours a week (20 hours a month) in most European countries and is also limited by the labour-rights that prohibit working more than 48h/week over a certain period (averaged over a couple of weeks if i recall correctly).
If you get a calculator out and do the maths for last 1-2 years of overtime wages, plus the expected saving from the new deal, try various scenarios and see if they are giving you a pay cut or a raise. If anything they should give a raise!!! It depends on your medical, perhaps your dentist can go on it.
"HR are insisting this is a good deal " quoth Phineas T. Barnum
As my father once said "If the car salesman is happy while you are signing the contract then your are not the one getting a good deal." With that said, if you've figured out the math and risks to be worth it for you then accepting the offer as-is may very well be the only choice.
As an aside, the private healthcare is going to be a taxable benefit, so it's not free, and the actual value to you can be pretty variable. IME you'll probably still use the NHS anyway apart from maybe easier access to a physio, or better scheduling of some outpatient procedures.
In the US, this boils down to exempt vs non-exempt. Typically, people who are exempt (salaried) are paid more than the non-exempt (hourly) employees. It's on you to decide which is better for you. Personally, I wouldn't consider it unless you get a big raise out of it (as in, way more than you would get with hourly + OT).

  last day (16 days later) »