[philtam]

I wonder if someone could confirm a salary question for me. I have recently taken on two employees which is all very new to me. I have agreed a basic guaranteed salary of 40 hours with overtime above 40 hours. They work a variety of hours sometimes lots, sometimes less, sometimes not at all. My question involves filling in the timesheets. For example - Monday - no work Tuesday - no work Wednesday - 12 hours Thursday - 10 hours Friday - no work.
Looking at the above example they have only worked 22 hours for the week. So I will pay them for a 40 hour week.
A friend of mine said that they should put 8 hours as a basic for the days that work was not available. This would then put their hours to 46. Meaning I would have to pay 6 hours overtime. I am right in putting hours upto 40 or should they put down 8 hours when work is not available. I thought as I was still giving 40 hours for the week then this would be ok. I would be grateful for any confirmation.

[Indizine]

It depends what you put in their contract of employment as to what equates to a normal working day. If you had put a normal working day is for example 9-5 with unpaid 1.2hr lunch then that is 7.5hrs a day and in which case your friend would be correct. However if you put something to the effect that hours will vary across each working week (with some details such as max 12 hrs, what breaks are included or excluded, etc) then you are correct not to pay overtime.

[Fuzzy]

I agree with Indi, does all depend what's in the Contract