It’s that time of the year again… On Sunday 29th October at 2:00am, the clocks will go back one hour, signalling the end of British Summer Time.
For most of us, ‘falling back’ means an extra hour in bed. Or for the night-owls among us, an extra hour partying. But spare a thought for those working who will be faced with an even longer nightshift than usual.
Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR, explains the common questions employers have around this time of year.
“Though we see the clocks change twice a year, every year, there’s still no shortage of questions we receive via our advice line, and our AI-powered search engine platform BrightLightning. And the most popular query is do I have to pay staff for the extra hour?
“The simple answer is that it comes down to whether the employee is paid a salary or an hourly rate.
Employees on an hourly rate should get an extra hour’s wages for their extra hour’s work whereas salaried employees would typically get paid their normal salary regardless. But perhaps the easiest option here is to allow employees to go home an hour earlier when the clocks go forward in the spring, cancelling out the extra hour worked now in the autumn.
“But be careful the extra hour doesn’t take your employee’s pay below the legal rate. All salaried workers are legally entitled to the National Minimum Wage, and for people aged 23 and over this is £10.42 per hour. Another thing to consider is that if your staff are working an extra hour, this could take them over their contracted hours. If this is the case, you might need to check your business’s overtime policy.
“You’d also need to check the extra hour doesn’t mean you’re breaching any other working time regulations, too. Ensure your workers are getting adequate rest time between shifts and the breaks that they are legally entitled to, and remember that night-shift workers must not work more than eight hours in a 24-hour period.
“Ultimately, as with most HR issues, it all comes down to what’s in your employees’ contracts. While two phrases might seem to say the same thing at a glance, there’s a very big difference between an ‘eight-hour shift starting at 12am’ and a ‘12am–8am shift’.
“To alleviate the risk of any ‘clock’-ups, be sure to remind your staff who are due in work on the Sunday morning of the impending time-change. Or you might have some turning up for their shift an hour early—and no, that doesn’t mean you need to pay them for it!”
