Taking part in Zoom calls on days off

[redeo]

so you're advocating doing training at home, which in turn gives you insight into management training and procedures. You then use your gained knowledge and power to train up other colleagues, but going by the example you're setting, won't they also be doing it at home?

Most them have to be dragged kicking and screaming to do their training, so no.

[NightAndDay]

All training in head office is done on company time, there have been a few case lawsuits around mandating training to be done outside of work hours, a few of the companies involved were found to be paying less than the legal minimum wage because of it.

If you're expected to attend meetings or do training or anything required by your employer on your day off, then it has to be paid as overtime (unless you're salaried and there is no overtime provision in your contract, while I don't get overtime normally, for things like this, it would be arranged and agreed overtime as I could do it during working hours).

[grim up north]

So NightAndDay, in your opinion, would people seeing what shifts they are working, booking holidays and so on be done in company time, not 'in the comfort of your own home' as they like to try to sell it?

[NightAndDay]

The difference is if it's from the desire of one's own motives or if it's an expectation from the employer.

Shift patterns should be known in advance of them being worked and should be able to be found out during company time, I can foresee there being legal ramifications, especially around Duty of Care if they could update shifts at a moments notice with next to no notice given to the person working the shift, it would also be operationally inefficient to work in such a manner as there'd be no guarantees people could turn up for their shift, and from a legal stand point, it would be seen as unreasonable to discipline given that there was no notice, nor does it make any mention of the fact it would operate this way in the contract.

Booking holidays takes all of 5 minutes to do and I always do it on company time, things like that are a grey area, because it's such a small and trivial activity, nobody really gives any odds around it or would feel hard done if they ended up doing it at home or on their break. I suppose if it came down to it, it could be argued it should be done on company time at a time that is suitable.

In short, as long as there's no expectation for activities to be done outside of company time, then they have no obligation to pay you for work activities you do by your own volition. It's only when there's an expectation where overtime should be payable.

[NightAndDay]

1 caveat to the above

Similarly, if they call you asking if you fancy doing an overtime shift, you don't have to expend any time or effort answering the phone, you can answer it, but it's not expected that you would, you can also approve or decline the offered overtime shift.

The only caveat to the above is if there's either an implied or explicit clause in your contract that says you have to be available to be called by the company. In a few places I've worked, they have an on-call payment provision so people are compensated for this, at my previous place of employment at the NAO as a senior applications consultant, I got paid £3.20 an hour for every hour outside of work that I was on-call for (£6.40 an hour on bank holidays) this equated to 123 hours a week of being paid on-call and worked out at around £11k extra a year (I did a split rota, 2 of every 4 weeks).

But there are no laws saying there is a minimum wage for being "on-call" (something I vehemently disagree with) meaning it's the only expectation that an employer can have for someone outside working hours that doesn't have to be payable (unless you're salaried).

[oldfashionedplayer]

So NightAndDay, in your opinion, would people seeing what shifts they are working, booking holidays and so on be done in company time, not 'in the comfort of your own home' as they like to try to sell it?

given that it's a requirement now to use a company system for it, rather than a piece of paper that can be handed in, Yes, it would come under company time to be used for booking holidays, likewise for training, if its "required for the job" which training is, then it must be done in company time or paid for the time used for it.

the current policy says Should, the information from communications says stores are to refuse Paper Holiday requests, so given the information is a Should, then there isn't a reason for paper to not be an acceptable form, since should is something you could do, but don't have to, while Must is something of a requirement..

"You should work hard" - I could but I won't
"You Must do this Or else there's possibility of legal implications to you" - Okay, got it, make sure to do this every time... 

[NightAndDay]

Slight correction to my last statement, employers can also expect you to not get their brand into disrepute, and this would be an expectation that wouldn't be payable, but as there's no actual work involved in doing this, it's a bit irrelevant.