Attention: AMIEU Teys Biloela Branch Members.

Dear AMIEU Member,

We have recently been contacted by several AMIEU members from Teys Biloela enquiring about their rights to refuse “Unreasonable overtime”.

KNOW YOUR RIGHT TO REFUSE UNREASONABLE OVERTIME

The National Employment Standards (NES) establish the maximum weekly hours for employees, as well as the circumstances in which an employee may refuse a request or requirement to work additional hours if the hours are unreasonable.

The NES applies to all employees covered by the national workplace relations system, regardless of any award, agreement or contract.

What are the maximum weekly hours of work?

An employer must not request or require an employee to work more than the following hours of work in a week, unless the t hours are reasonable:

• for a full-me employee, 38 hours or

• for an employee other than a full-time employee, the lesser of: – 38 hours – the employee’s ordinary hours of work in a week. The hours an employee works in a week must be taken to include any hours of leave or absence (paid or unpaid) that is authorised:

o by the employer or

o by or under a term of the employee’s employment or

o by or under a Commonwealth, State or Territory law, or an instrument in force under such

a law.

An employee may refuse to work additional hours if they are unreasonable.

What factors determine whether additional hours are reasonable?

• any risk to employee health and safety.

• the employee’s personal circumstances, including family responsibilities

• the needs of the workplace or enterprise

• any notice given by the employer to work the additional hours

• any notice given by the employee of his or her intention to refuse to work the additional hours• whether the employee is entitled to receive overtime payments, penalty rates or other compensation for (or a level of remuneration that reflects an expectation of) working additional hours

• the usual patterns of work in the industry

• the nature of the employee’s role and the employee’s level of responsibility

• whether the additional hours are in accordance with averaging provisions included in an award or agreement that is applicable to the employee, or an averaging arrangement agreed to by an employer and an award/ agreement-free employee

• any other relevant mater

IMPORTANT:

Whether additional hours or overtime is reasonable will depend very much on individual examples.

For instance, if a worker is given little notice of the overtime, and the worker needs to care for their children at that time, a refusal to do the additional hours would likely be reasonable. But another worker who does not have family commitments might have to work the overtime.

Ordinarily, a request to work overtime on a Saturday might be reasonable in normal circumstances. But if an employee has already worked a considerable amount of overtime during the week, it might be reasonable for the

employee to refuse the additional overtime. This is because all workers need a suitable amount of rest and relaxation to ensure their mental and physical wellbeing and to ensure that they are not fatigued for work.

Importantly, employees should give notice to the employer as soon as possible of their inability to work overtime.  Of course, this may be difficult if the Company gives limited or no notice of the intention to require overtime.

The Union understands that many workers would like straightforward rules or simple yes/no answers about when they do or do not have to perform overtime. However, the legislation simply does not work that way, it requires consideration of all the factors affecting you.

If you have concerns that the overtime you have been directed to perform is unreasonable, then you need to get advice from your organiser!

Any member who feels they have been coerced or threatened with termination due to being required to perform unreasonable overtime should contact their AMIEU Organiser immediately.

Kind regards,

Wilian Sardinha

BRANCH ORGANISER

0488 004 944

willian@amieuqld.asn.au